World Cup Fever
by Theoracle-san
Summary: South Africa vs Japan in the Finals, and the Kurosaki's are watching the game, LIVE! Soul Society and Hueco Mundo are also under the world cup fever, resulting in chaos! Multi plots, multi actions, multi pairings! What will happen in their crazy trip?
1. Welcome To South Africa

**BLEACH: World Cup Fever**

**In conjunction of the World Cup I decided to post a story that would probably span for few chapters. I hope it will be enjoyable to you guys.**

**This will not only focus around Ichigo and Rukia, but it will focus on multi characters in multi-different plots, some maybe unrelated to each other.**

**In here I made Japan qualified to go to the finals against South Africa. Few places mention in here will probably be fiction.**

**The timeline of this story is unable to fit in the bleach timeline.**

**Its somewhere before the Winter War and Inoue somehow managed to return to the living world.**

**Bare with me**

**. =B**

**DISCLAIMER****: I do not own Bleach or the World Cup.**

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**CHAPTER 1**

**Welcome To South Africa**

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Soul Society

The streets of Rukongai were empty. Sure they were still few souls that carried on doing their everyday routine, but the difference in the intensity of the crowd were vastly visible. Children that used to be seen playing soccer down the street were nowhere to be found. The screaming of the ramen vendor was inaudible, creating an unusual silence for the few who still roam the street.

In comparison to Seiretei however, the emptiness of the scene was far more absurd. No shinigamis patrolling the area. No sound of Kenpachi or Ikkaku craving for some blood-thirsty action. Even Hitsugaya Toshiro was missing from his office in the 10th Division building, and the stack of paperwork was left undone. The whole Seiretei was empty as it can possibly be. Except for one part of it. The 12th Division Research and Technology building.

"Mayuri-sama, you look excited today," Nemu told her Captain-Father-Boss.

"Nemu. Stop talking and do your work. Make sure the VGA cable is attached to the correct place!" Mayuri responded, typing something to his large mainframe screen.

"Sir, which one is the audio cable? The one with the red or white?" Rin asked, not familiar with the two long wires stretched from two large speakers placed at the division's huge backyard.

"Baka! They are both audio cable. Connect each cable to that PA Equalizer System over there. Can't anyone do anything right around here!" Mayuri got up from his chair and exited the room towards the yard, mumbling curses on the way.

"Mayuri-sama's been really cranky lately. More then usual" Rin innocently commented to Nemu.

"Hmm," Nemu acknowledged the comment while attaching the VGA cable to the large contraption labeled Interworld Media Converter. "We can't blame him. Mayuri-sama wants everything to be prepared before tomorrow night. The whole Seiretei will be here to watch the World Cup Finals, Live on TV"

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Living World

Ichigo flushed his diluted faeces down the toilet bowl. He let out a large sigh and stood up, pulling his jeans up while leaning on the wall. The toilet was small in area, allowing him to lean from one side of the wall to the opposite without much effort.

"All passengers please stay at your seat and fasten your seatbelt. We are entering a storm cloud and may encounter a slight turbulence. Breakfast will be served soon. Have a nice flight" a monotone voice on the PA speaker said.

"I hope they don't serve anymore fish.." Ichigo mumbled as he washed his hands "the one they served me for dinner just caused me diarrhea."

He opened the restroom door and suddenly encountered a foot ramming him straight on his face.

"ICHIGO! You're TOO SLOW!" an older man wearing a yellow Hawaiian polo shouts, "Did the altitude got to your reflex?"

"YOU STUPID GOAT!" Ichigo angrily yelled before kicking Isshin on the stomache sending him crashing to the restroom door. "WHAT THE EFF WAS THAT FOR? THIS IS NOT OUR HOUSE. WE'RE ON A FREAKIN PLANE! YOU DO NOT KICK PEOPLE ON A FREAKIN PLANE!"

"You gotta expect the unexpected! For the unexpected will expect YOU!" Isshin said, one hand on his tummy while the other giving Ichigo a thumbs up.

"Is everything okay sir? Do I need to call the Air Marshall?" a stewardess asked, suddenly rushing towards the commotion.

"I'm sorry for the noise miss. No need for any Air Marshall. He's just a retarded father of mine." Ichigo shyly explained to the lady with his hands in his pocket.

"ICHIGO! You're hitting on the stewardess? GOOD JOB! From her looks I am sure my grandchildren will be all cute and adorabl—" Isshin's face was hit by Ichigo's foot causing him to crash face down on the restroom floor.

"On second thoughts, tell the Air Marshall there is a lunatic terrorist on board," Ichigo said pointing to Isshin.

He walked through the aisle leaving his dad crying something about getting disowned while the stewardess stood there not knowing what to do in the current situation. His stomach still ached in pain a little. Those fish and chips the plane served yesterday were probably expired. He didn't get a proper sleep because of it and had been in a plane for almost ten hours now. Hence, he was slightly irritated.

"Hurry up Ichigo! You need to fasten your seatbelt!" a voice shouted from one of the seats while waving her hand.

"Relax Rukia," he replied with a scowl as he entered his row sitting between Rukia and Ishida.

Rukia screamed joyfully like a little girl from elementary receiving a bunny sticker for an A on a test as the plane enters the thick black cloud. She was at the window seat, constantly peeping out the window. Rukia was excited. It's her first time to be on a plane. Sure she flew (more accurately Shunpoed) all the time during her hollow battles or to move from one location to another. But flying in a plane is a whole different thing. The comfortable chair, the free meals, free pillows given for them to sleep at night and not to mention the children Chappy magazine that can be found on the side pocket of her chair were some of the reasons she enjoys this flight.

"Kurosaki, seatbelt. Now." Ishida said. He was seating next to Ichigo, holding a magazine with his hands gripped tight on the article. His hands were shaking ever since he got on the plane yesterday night. In contradiction to Rukia, Ishida was afraid of flying. Not because he was afraid of height. No. It's the whole idea of letting a big chunk of metal crafted to imitate the physical property of a bird to carry him hundreds of kilometers from sea level with a 50-50 chance of crashing. He's not afraid of death, now knowing how the afterlife would be like. He just hated the idea of dying on a pathetic plane crash.

"We….are gonna….crash…" Ichigo whispered to Ishida's ear, mimicking a ghostly voice the best he could, only to receive a nice hard slap from him on the face.

"What the hell?" Ichigo exclaimed painfully, touching his sore cheek. "Did you just bitchslap me Ishida?"

"Shut up Kurosaki!" Ishida said, fixing his glasses on the bridge of his nose "that's what you get for talking crap to me!"

"A slap? Seriously? What are you, a girl with a PMS or something" Ichigo said, still dumbfounded by what just happen. He expected a fist on the face, or kick on his gutter from Ishida. But a slap? That's just.. unexplainable. Maybe his height phobia brought up his feminine side, he thought, chuckling by himself mentally.

"Kurosaki-kun, Ishida-kun. Keep your voice down. Everyone is staring at us." Inoue, who sat on the row in front of them with Chad and Isshin (who was still whining at the restroom), looked back and told them. Chad was listening to his Ipod, humming the tune of the music that was playing in his ear. Inoue had tried to spark up a good conversation with him during the flight, but to no avail for all he said was "hmm" and "then?".

Two rows ahead, Karin, Yuzu and Toshiro were fastening their seat belts. Karin was smiling. Her smile was wider than any smile Yuzu ever gave during her lifetime. Her smile was so cheerful and happy that Yuzu was worried.

"Karin, are you sick?" Yuzu asked.

"No my dear twin sister," Karin said with the same smile "I never felt better in my whole life." Yuzu dropped the conversation after that.

Toshiro, who sat near the window next to Karin, was staring at her for a while now. He loved to see her smile that way. With all the aggressive attitude and the infamous Kurosak-scowl her face usually show, the smile made her looked….well, prettier. Realizing the sudden blushing on his cheek he shook his head and turned his glance to the window view.

"Thank you Toshiro," Karin said, punching him on his arm "for taking us on this trip!"

"Yea sure," was all he replied. Just being with her was enough to thank him. Well, technically, he should give the credit to Uruhara and Rangiku for setting up the whole idea of going to the World Cup finals between South Africa and Japan. Karin kept mentioning about her wish to actually watch the final match to him, and unfortunately, Rangiku overheard. So she began organizing another lets-get-taichou-a-girlfriend scheme with Uruhara. Somehow Uruhara managed to get plane tickets, the soccer match tickets and a vacation package (hotels, food etc) for ten people, all expenses paid. Toshiro knew there will be something Uruhara want in return. That bum would never be this generous without a catch. The only reason Toshiro agreed with the plan was because Rangiku actually did her paperwork (Well, some of it at least) in return for his agreement. And apparently Rangiku invited Karin too. To make sure Karin would come, she invited Yuzu. To make sure Yuzu would come she invited Ichigo. To make sure Ichigo would come she invited Rukia, Chad, Inoue and Ishida. To makes sure they got an adult supervison, she invited Isshin. It was a full proof plan. A very well planned scheme by Rangiku Matsumoto, surprisingly. There was suppose to be one more to join the group for the trip but he or she didn't show up. Toshiro could not recall who it was suppose to be.

"Who do you think will win the match, Toshiro?" Karin's voice snapped him off his thoughts.

"Um, Japan?" he replied. He was not really following up with the soccer news in the living world so he was not sure what to answer.

"I think so too, because I kn— Look! Its Africa!" Karin's sentence was stopped by the fascinating view of the savannah grassland far below them. Antelopes can be seen gliding through the land, Giraffes gently nibbling on the leaves of the trees and elephants traveling in groups in search for new greener pasture. Seeing that they had exited from the storm cloud, she unbuckled her seatbelt and lean forward to the window for a better view. Her knees were on her chair, her hand was on the window, and her head was in front of Toshiro's face. The sweet lavender shampoo smell of the silky raven hair attacked Toshiro's nostril aggressively causing his face to turn red. To make matter worse (or better) for him, a short turbulence caused the plane to jerk, causing him to accidentally kiss Karin on her cheek. Karin stared at Toshiro with a surprised red face for few long seconds while Yuzu remained oblivious with what just happen.

"Karin, I—" Toshiro stuttered, still blushing heavily

"HOW'S MY SWEET DAUGHTERS AND FUTURE SON-IN-LAW DOING?" yelled Isshin who appeared out of the blue.

After receiving a severe blow from Karin on the face, Isshin was forced to seat next to the Air Marshall for the rest of the flight.

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Hueco Mundo

"Foodbol! Foodbol!" little Nel shouted as she, Dondochakka and Pesche ran across the white desert chasing after a dark green sphere like object. Nel then kicked the ball to the opposite direction and the group continued after it.

"Nel! Let me kick the ball!" Pesche grunted, chasing after Nel.

"No! Nel found its. It's Nels!" Nel said, picking up the object.

"But I wanna kick it too dontcha know!" Dondochakka yelled.

"No! Nel found! Nel found so the ball belong to Nel" cried Nel

"I helped you take it from the room in Las Noches" Pesche said trying to defend his case.

"And I help breaking down the door, dontcha know" Dondochakka added.

"Hmmm," Nel entered a deep thought "Okay, we will take turn kicking the bol"

So they played with the object happily, kicking it in every direction possible in the large spacious environment.

Back at Las Noches, Szayel was anxiously searching for something in his room. Starkk went in and yawned. He was wearing a Japan National Soccer Team jersey on top his Espada uniform. Lilynette was behind him with the Japanese flag painted on her face.

"Is the set up ready for tomorrow night? Aizen-sama was asking for confirmation" Starkk asked.

"We have a problem. Someone stole the Reiatsu-Emf Amplifier." Szayel responded, his fingers fiddled with his glasses.

"The Reyata-what-now?"

"It's a green spherical orb that contains a receiver that could receive the broadcast signal from the living world and momentarily convert into a spirit energy as it enters Hueco Mundo. From there I can attach the orb to my computer in the media chamber and transmit the signal to our satellite dish. " Szayel explained seriously.

"Oh no. Does that mean.." Starkk stopped, expecting Szayel to continue his sentence.

"Yes. That means no watching the Word Cup Finals tomorrow night."

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Living World

Few lions were slowly stalking on a pack of buffaloes, expecting a glorious meal for the day. They almost attacked their prey until a bright light appeared suddenly in the middle of the African grassland, causing the buffaloes to run away. After the bright light, a Senkai Gate was seen. The door slid open and a large reiatsu was released causing the lions to back away quickly with fear. A large figure with ridiculously spiky hair in black tank top and khaki pants stepped out. On his shoulder sat a smaller female childlike figure wearing a Liverpool jersey.

The smaller pink-hair girl clapped her hand joyfully and said "Hooray! I think we're in Africa!"

The large man took a deep breath through his nose. "I can smell you Kurosaki! This is going to be fun!"

"Ichigo will be glad to see us here," the girl continued "right Ken-chan?"

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**And sorry for no IchiRuki moments in this chapter.**

**And for the names I put for Mayuri's device and Szayel's orb, if you can suggest a better one do tell me. I can't think of anything good.**

**Anyway, review.**

**=B**

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***Kon Flies across screen***

**SHINIGAMI GOLDEN**

Renji looked at the torn piece of paper on the floor of Uruhara Candy Shop. His only freedom for the weekend was torned to pieces. He looked furiously at Jinta who was also staring at the pieces of paper. Both of them bend down and picked up what was left of the plane ticket to South Africa.

"Its all your fault you BAKA! Now I can't watch the World Cup Finals LIVE" Renji shouted at Jinta

"Shut up freeloader! _I_ was supposed to be the one who went on that plane! With Yuzu!" Jinta yelled back, he stuttered a little when he mentioned the little Kurosaki's name.

"Says who! Dammit you don't even LIKE soccer! You're a baseball freak for crying out loud"

"Says Rangiku! She told Uruhara to give the plane ticket to the Red Head" Jinta exclaimed then pointing to himself, "me!"

"You blind asshole! I'm a Red Head too!"


	2. KickOff

**BLEACH: World Cup Fever**

**I would like to say something. This story may not focus on the final soccer match itself, but around the trip and adventure they encounter before it. But if I managed to, I'll try to say few stuff about the game.**

**Honestly guys, I'm not a fan of soccer too.**

**=B**

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**Aragaki Rey**

**Thanks for being my FIRST REVEWER! *give trophy* Good luck to Spain then. Im more of a Germany supporter..and Japan. XD**

**Eradona**

**The Air Marshal part was random, I just wanna have some fun with Isshin on the plane. HAHA Hmm I didn't thought about tranquillizing him. Should've done that huh? Haha**

**Jinta and Renji will have more arguments in the future, hopefully. Hahaha**

**AvedlyTres**

**OMG, I am humbled by your presence. I am really honoured an author such as yourself stumbled upon my fic. LOL **

**Im a JintaYuzu fan too, but I don't know if I can put them in that much in the story. We'll just see. Cross my fingers. **

**So you are a HitsuMomo fan? Maybe so from your stories.**

**Don't worrl about soccer terminology; I don't really know about them myself. Honestly I am not a fan of soccer. Rarely watch the game. But every World Cup, theirs is this vibe you know, making you sit infront of the TV just to watch the game.**

**Bcsaturdai**

**Thanks for reviewing dude. Im not a fan of soccer too so don't worry. Just hope you'll enjoy my story. =)**

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****DISCLAIMER****: I do not own Bleach or the World Cup.**

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****CHAPTER 2**

**Kick-Off**

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Hueco Mundo

Ulquiorra stared at Grimmjow with his usual lifeless expression. He looked at the ticket in his hands, It was a yellow ticket with green and red stripes in an alternating pattern on the left side with a large heading "WC2010: Japan vs. South Africa", followed by the row and seat number. At the bottom corner was the official world cup logo with "Africa 2010" imprinted next to it in small blue font.

"Why me?" he asked.

"Trust me, if I have a better choice, I'd ask them," Grimmjow replied. "Aizen got these two tickets for me and Starrk because he can't go to the human world right now with the Soul Society still has the heat on him and it can't be refund. But Stark said he refuse to go because he gotta babysit Lilynette. I don't wanna go watch the match by myself. It'll be really dull"

"Then bring him," Ulquiorra pointed to Nnoitra sitting on his chair in the Espada meeting room, hands behind his head as he leaned on the chair while humming the World Cup theme song.

"Are you crazy? All he'll do is shouting curses towards the South African player or give the locals a lot of racist comments,"

"What about Aaroniero?"

"I'm not bringing that goldfish anywhere. He still creeps me out."

"Harribel? She loves soccer doesn't she?"

"That would be like going on a date with her. I cannot afford any rumor about us seeing each other around here"

"Szayel?"

"I'm not that desperate."

"Yammy? Baraggan? Zommari?"

"Look man!" Grimmjow's voice suddenly reached an agitated tone, holding Ulquiorra's collar "You wanna go or not?"

"But I do not even like soccer." Ulquiorra replied, slowly unhanding Grimmjow off his collar. "I find nothing amusing watching twenty two humans running aimlessly around a field chasing one silly ball."

"Come on Ulquiorra. How often do you go out and have fun in the living world?"

"More often than you."

"Doing Aizen's chores doesn't count you know."

Ulquiorra took a long stare at the smiling Grimmjow before slowly walking back to his seat around the table. "I'm not going."

Grimmjow let out a sigh as he put the two tickets in his pocket. Just then the door opened and Aizen, Gin and Tousen walked inside and went straight to their seat. After a few seconds, Aizen stands up.

"The World Cup Finals is tomorrow night. For those of you who want to watch it with me, you are highly welcome. Szayel, as we speak, is setting up the necessities for us to be able to receive the broadcast from the human world. Now I need to know how many of you and your fraccions will be going? Because I need to know if all of us can fit in the Media Chamber. You will give the list to Gin by the end of the day. Is that clear?"

All of the Espadas, who were by that time already sitting at their distinctive places around the table, acknowledged the statement with a unison nod. All except Ulquiorra that is.

"Is there something you wish to speak Ulquiorra?"

Ulquiorra looked up at Aizen's eye. After a short pause he said, "I wish to stay at my room tomorrow night if I may Aizen-sama. I have no intention to watch the game."

"As you wish," Aizen replied.

"Aizen-sama". A voice interrupted the meeting. At the door, Starkk was leaning against the opened door with Szayel behind him. "I am afraid we have a problem."

Aizen's eyebrow rose, expecting further elaboration of the situation without the need to ask it out. Starkk turned his head to the back and jerked it towards the room, signaling Lilynette to bring in the probably three most annoyin Arrancars in the whole Hueco Mundo. Lilynette then pushed them and they fell hard on the floor.

"Oww! That hurts dontcha know!" Dondochakka wailed, massaging the newly formed bruise on his head.

"Wow, I've never been to an Espada meeting room before. You guys should really get an interior designer around here. The chi flow is immensely bad." Pesche commented, looking around the large room.

"Heehee, viz room is big for us to pway more foodbol!" Nel added as she heavily drooled on the floor.

Szayel then entered the room and threw a green sphere to the floor in front of the three. The sphere was damaged and heavily dented on a few of its sides. Electrical sparks can be seen from time to time through the small crack at the center.

"I'm afraid we cannot watch the game tomorrow," Szayel then explained, "because these three infantiles have destroyed the Reiatsu-Emf Amplifier. Without it we will be unable to receive the satellite broadcast signal from the living world."

The whole room was set in motion as disappointments, rage and questions were thrown out from one Arrancar to another. Nel and her two fraccions were simply sitting still at the floor, amusing themselves with the scenario.

"YOU STUPID BITCH!" Nnoitra stood up suddenly and yelled to the small Espada. The idea of him not being able to watch the game because of Nel was fueling up his eternal vendetta with her. "I'm gonna KILL you NEL!" With that he drew up his sword and leaped towards the shivering Nel.

"I summon you Bawabawa!" Dondochakka stood infront of Nel and the long worm-like hollow exited his mouth and smashed the ceiling of the room, causing the debris that followed after it to hit Nnoitra's sword.

"Shit!" Nnoitra said avoiding the falling pile of cements.

Pesche than carried Nel and jumped on Bawabawa, "You think you can catch us that easily you stupid Espadas!" he said, standing on the head of their pet hollow. "Dondonchakka! Get the ball!"

Dondonchakka dramatically jumped and did a few (unsuccessful) cartwheels as he grabbed the broken Reiastsu-Emf Amplifier and hopped on Bawabawa. The worm hollow then growled and headed straight to the closest wall before rampaging it down to create a path for their escapade. By the time the debris of the crash had stop falling, the three Arrancars were nowhere to be seen, leaving the Espadas to be covered in dust and the room totally wrecked with a large hole large enough for a Menos to crawl in. Aizen had put some kind of barrier around him and his fellow ex-shinigami comrades before addressing Szayel.

"Can you not fix the amplifier? Or find another way to deliver the broadcast to Hueco Mundo?" he asked calmly, ignoring the incident that had just occurred.

"Well there is one way," Szayel said as he gloriously flipped his pink hair from his dusty face. He took out a small black button-like object from his pocket. "This is a Garganta Frequency Transmitter. It allows any radio waves to be transmitted through a small garganta inside the device into Hueco Mundo and then received by a satellite dish in the Media Chamber. Thus, we can watch the game if this transmitter is placed on the main broadcast antenna in the living world."

"That means we need to get someone to go and place the transmitter in South Africa, before the game." Starkk added.

All the Espadas raised up their hands to get Aizen's attention so they will get pick for the job. Ulquiorra was the only exception. He simply crossed his arms on his chest and closed his eyes. When he felt Aizen look his way, he slowly opened his green eyes with a disturbed look on his face.

"Ulquiorra," Aizen said "I want you to go with Grimmjow."

* * *

Living World

"Flight JT8901 from Tokyo has landed in gate 2. I repeat, flight…"

The sound of the voice from the PA slowly faded as Ichigo finally found his bag from the hundreds of others in the moving treadmill. It was his camping bag, which was big enough to carry all the stuff he would need for the next five days in Africa. The airport of Johannesburg was crowded because of the Word Cup Finals – almost as crowded as the streets of Karakura during the New Year festival. He'll be lucky if he could move his arms without accidentally hitting someone with his elbow. The number of foreigners that he could see far exceeded the locals. Europeans, Asians and probably a few Russians were those that Ichigo could recognize based on their accents. His flight had landed on Tambo International Airport almost half an hour ago. The rest of his group were already with their luggage and exited to the main building.

"Ichi-nii!" Yuzu waved as her brother could finally be spotted from the intense crowd.

Ichigo walked towards her and threw himself on the dark blue bench placed on the wall next to Rukia who was reading a brochure she picked up at the Information Center. He looked around only to see Yuzu, Karin and Rukia.

"Where'd the others go?" Ichigo asked

"Isshin went to rent a van we could use to get to our hotel. Chad, Ishida and Orihime said they wanted to get us something to eat at that diner on the second floor. Hitsugaya-taichou went to the toilet.." Rukia paused, her hands holding her chin "Come to think of it, he went there twenty minutes ago. I wonder what he is doing."

"I'll go check on him.. I need to use the restroom anyway" Ichigo stood up and stretched his body.

"Your tummy still hurts?" Rukia asked

"No, I don't think so. Why? Miss Midget is worried about me?" Ichigo replied with a big grin across his face. Rukia, annoyed, punched him square on the stomach.

"OWWWIE!" Ichigo bend down as he held the inflicted area.

"What about now? Does it hurt, Strawberry?" yelled Rukia as she blew her fist as if it was a newly fired revolver.

"You're a bitch sometimes you know that!" Ichigo mumbled in pain while walking towards the restroom.

* * *

_Her cheeks felt warm, _thought Toshiro as he gazed at his reflection in the restroom mirror. The tap water was still running as it had been for the last twenty minutes or so and the same amount of time he spent just standing in front of the mirror doing nothing but thinking, ignoring any other occupants that come and go in the restroom. Karin's scent still lingered in his thoughts. And everytime he thought of that accidental-kiss back on the plane he would blush and lick his lips lightly. The taste was still there. The taste that he cannot somehow describe no matter how hard he looked in his vocabulary. No way he would let Matsumoto know about this or she would do one of her victory dance. He hasn't spoken a word to Karin after that, and he felt stupid. It's just a kiss on a cheek right? A kiss on the cheek of a very pretty girl with a beautiful shoulder length raven hair…

"Oi Toshiro!" Ichigo's voice snapped him off his infatuated thoughts. "Your shoe is getting wet."

Toshiro looked down and sure enough, his white Vans slip-ons were drenched in a small pool of water that was caused by the flooded sink of his running tap. He quickly turned the tap off and step into a slightly drier part of the floor.

"What the hell were you doing? Admiring yourself much?" Ichigo said as he walked towards a cubicle to start his 'business'.

"Shut up Kurosaki." Toshiro then went into another cubicle next to him for the same reason. He's tired of correcting Ichigo for calling him Toshiro instead of Hitsugaya-Taichou so he learnt to live with it. As he sat on the pot, his thoughts again led him to the raven haired Kurosaki earlier. And again his cheek began to blush.

"Kurosaki." Toshiro said, loud enough so Ichigo next door can hear him.

"Hmmph?" Ichigo responded as he tried to launch the lump of faeces that seemed to be jammed at the edge of his butt.

"Have you ever kissed Rukia?"

BBBRRRRRRTTTTTTTTTT~~~~!

The sudden disgusting sound of released crap from Ichigo's butt was heard in a high volume. Foul stench began to fill the room. The footsteps of few other inhabitants of the restroom began to be heard as they rushed out the room, each cursing words in their own native language. That question had taken him by total surprise.

"KUROSAKI YOU DISGUSTING IDIOT!" Toshiro yelled quickly holding his nose with one hand while trying to pull up his pants with the other. He exited the cubicle and rushed out the restroom.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT QUESTION TOSHIRO!" Ichigo, still startled by the sudden topic that was introduced to him by the 10th Division Captain.

No answer.

"TOSHIRO!"

* * *

Soul Society

"Hey Mayuri! How's the preparation going!" Ukitake asked with the usual smile on his face.

"Pfft!" was all the respond Mayuri gave. That was the nth time the same question was asked, and he was growing really annoyed with it. He walked through his backyard from the barracks, to check on the preparations himself. But the immense number of crowd of Shinigamis in his backyard was not making that job easier for him.

"Kurosutchi Taicho, you're stepping on my pillow." A shinigami, who was sitting on the ground, arranging his sleeping bag, said.

"PFFT!" Mayuri kicked the cushion further away from the poor shinigami, causing him to stare at the flying cushion with fear and dismay. Mayuri was really annoyed. His backyard were littered with sleeping bags, coffee tables, tents, pillows and thousands of low life shinigamis all chattering about the upcoming game. Not to mention some actually found a spot to have a small soccer match. You see, with the news that Mayuri was assigned to host in his backyard a live telecast of the finals from a large screen, a lot of them decided to go there early to get the best seat in the house. Hence that morning, out of Mayuri's disapproval, his backyard now looks like some shit-ass shinigami summer camp. Even the Captains and Vice-Captain found a spot at the center of the field, where a large tent shades their campsite with a large banner saying "VIP Tent: Authorized Personnel Only".

Mayuri reached to the big screen at the end of the yard, where Nemu and Akon were connecting few cables while few other shinigamis were wiping the screen.

"NO! NO! You useless imbeciles! Those cables were wrong! I said YELLOW for VIDEO and RED/WHITE for the AUDIO! And don't wipe the screen with those rags! You'll leave scratch marks!"

"Sorry Kurosutchi-taichou" were heard from the poor shinigamis.

"AHH! YOU ALL ARE SO USELESS! I WISH THAT OLD FART YAMAMOTO NEVER ASSIGN ME THIS JOB!"

While Mayuri was yelling frantically to his poor sub-ordinates, back at the VIP Tent, Ikkaku and Yumichika were lying on their sleeping bags.

"I'm glad I'm not one of the 12th Division squads. All that work would make me feel ugly" Yumichikka said.

"Just admit that you're a lazy ass," Ikkaku commented

"If staying beautiful is lazy-ass, than I don't mind being one"

"Thank god Yachiru isn't here. She'll give Mayuri a tougher time with her crazy behavior"

"Oh yea, where is she? I haven't seen her all day."

"Didn't you read the note she left at the barracks? She's with Captain Zaraki in the living world."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah. I wonder why the captain didn't wanna watch the game with the whole Seiretei?"

"He said something about needing a good fight since everyone here are more interested in the World Cup. I don't think he fancy soccer that much."

A ball then entered their tent, ceasing any more conversation to continue.

"Third seat Madarame! Can we have the ball back?" shouted one of the soccer-playing Shinigami few feet away. Ikkaku picked up the ball and got into position.

"What are you doing?" Yumichikka asked him

"Kicking the ball, you idiot" Ikkaku replied.

"You know you can't kick properly. The worst thing that could happen is that the ball will hit that big screen TV. You're screwed when that happens."

"Just shut your mouth and watch me"

Ikkaku swung his leg high towards the back and with a full force hit the ball, sending it flying...

Passed the soccer-playing shinigamis..

Passed the shocked Nanao that was reading a book

Passed a sleeping Shunsui..

Straight towards Captain Mayuri's….

Face..

Sending him stunned and unconscious to the ground, head first.

Ikkaku stared as everyone nearby began to gather around the fallen 12th Division captain. Yumichikka stood up from his sleeping position and giggled.

"I take it back Ikkaku," he said "_**This **_is the worst thing that could happen if you kick the ball."

* * *

**Second chapter! I had to rewrite the Hueco Mundo part few times to actually find a good one. I think this is the best I can do.**

**Yes, poor Mayuri.**

**Yes maybe the Espadas are a bit out of character. I tried as hard to reduce their OOCness.**

**I'm sorry if I left out Zaraki's and Yachiru's adventure in this chapter. I don't wanna extend it longer than it already is. The next chapter will probably show more on them.**

**Funfact: Tambo International Airport is real, the largest and busiest airport in Africa.**

**=B

* * *

**

***Kon flies across screen***

**SHINIGAMI WORLD CUP FEVER!**

Renji was sitting quietly at the corner of Uruhara's store while Ururu sweeps the floor. A laptop was on his lap and he was looking very much pre-occupied. There was a plug connecting the laptop to the wall socket. Apparently that laptop, which Tessai lent him earlier, has no battery.

"Renji-san," Ururu addressed him "what are you doing?"

"I'm trying to buy a plane ticket to South Africa online because that Jinta torn mine up. But the Wifi's connection is damn slow!" Renji replied, emphasizing Jinta's name.

"I think that's because Jinta is downloading videos from YouTube again." Ururu said as she put the broom back to where it was stored.

"Video? What video?"

"Yuzu's video blog from her YouTube account"

"That kid….is he that desperate.." Renji said as a sweat dropped from his head.


	3. Referee

BLEACH: World Cup Fever

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I wanna thank bcsaturdai, cy-grl, aragaki rey, 101fallingrock and pantastic45

for taking time ti review.

Also thank you for those who reads this but too lazy to click the review link =B

* * *

**DISCLAIMER****: I do not own Bleach or the World Cup.**

* * *

**CHAPTER 3**

**Referee**

* * *

Living World

Somewhere in the African continent, far from any signs of civilization, something could be seen dashing across the savannah grassland. The sun was up, and its scorching heat feeds the yellowish grasses and the dry trees with its rays. Yet despite the heat, that something was still running without breaking a sweat.

"Wait Ken-Chan!" Yachiru, clinging on a larger man's shoulder pointed to the direction behind them "I think Ichigo is this way!"

"But we just came from there," Kenpachi still runs towards his current direction.

"We did?" Yachiru chirped happily "Then he must be that way!". She pointed to a totally different direction.

Kenpachi stopped running. He was panting heavily, something he rarely felt. He walked to the nearest tree to feel its cool shade. Yachiru hopped off his shoulder and stood next to the sitting Kenpachi.

"Why are we stopping?" she curiously looked at Kenpachi while he was opening the zipper of his backpack.

"This gigai," he paused to allow his throat to enjoy the mineral water he was gulping from a water bottle, "makes me feel tired. That's why I do not want to use gigai."

"Hmm, but I think our gigai looked pretty cute," Yachiru said as she spin around "and I like my Liverpool Jersey."

Kenpachi continued drinking his water before Yachiru addressed him again.

"And Yamamoto-san said we must always use gigai in the living world if we are not involved in any battle. We got into a big trouble the last time we hunt Ichigo down at Karakura in our Shinigami form." Yachiru in turn took her bottle from her bagpack and hands it to Kenpachi, requesting him to open it for her. As he spin the top, he chuckled, recalling the memories of Ichigo's freaked out facial expression when he barged into his school few months ago, causing him to cry and run away. He chased him around Karakura town, only to be revealed that Ichigo was actually Kon. Apparently Kon was using Ichigo's body to create some scene in school to 'settle the score', and Kenpachi had to ruin his plan. Of course during the chase, a lot of walls were wrecked, street lights collapses and cars crashed. Captain Commander Yamamoto was not happy at all.

"Yachiru, give me the map" Kenpachi said

"What map?" Yachiru tilted her head for a moment before saying "Oh! The one Uruhara-Chan gave before we got here?"

"Yes"

Yachiru looked through her bagpack and took out a nicely folded piece of paper and handed it to Kenpachi. He took the map and recalled what Uruhara told him earlier.

"_There's a map of Africa on the table that would help you get around. We don't wanna get you two lost and run around aimlessly now would we?" Uruhara said as Kenpachi and Yachiru were packing their bagpacks. Kenpachi didn't like to use maps, he trust his sense or direction, namely Yachiru. But he took it anyway for an emergency situation._

'This is an emergency situation.' Kenpachi thought as he unfolded the map. He scanned the map. "Where did Uruhara said Ichigo is?"

"Hmmmm, I think its place called Jonasburger,"

"What a silly name," He scanned through the map and realized something. "Hey wait a sec, this is a world map." Yachiru laughed and took the map from him. She looked at the map and instead of showing the African continent, it shows the whole world and their capital cities. Africa was there. A small cockroach sized continent under Europe. At the bottom corner of the map was a name written in pen. Jinta Hanakari.

"I guess we took the wrong one. Well, here's Africa." She pointed at the continent "but I can't find Jonasburger".

"Well then," Kenpachi took back the map and crumpled it up before throwing it to the air. "We have to do it our way, like we always do." He sniffed the air "Besides, I can smell Kurosaki's scent from here! Hop on Yachiru,"

Yachiru clapped her hand and zipped her bag. She hopped on the large shoulder and grip hold tightly. Just when they were about to move, a sudden yell took their attention.

"HELP! HELP!"

* * *

Soul Society

All the campers room the 12th Division backyard were crowding the entrance of the captain's room. Everyone was talking about what just happened, and from time to time, they would look at poor Ikkaku with a death glare only to be retorted back by him with his Zanpakuto. If Yumichikka hadn't held him back, there would probably be a bloodbath right now.

"Make way for the Captain Commander!" a voice far beyond the crowd said.

As the crowd turned to the source of the command, they stepped back to form a path from the 12th Division's entrance gate to the captain's barracks. Walking down the newly formed path was Captain Commander Yamamoto and his trusted right hand man Sasakibe. They reached the barracks door and stood there as it slowly opened. Captain Unohana stepped out followed by Isane, with a gloomy expression drawn across their face.

"How is he, Unohana-taicho?" Yamamoto asked. His cane tapped the wooden floor repeatedly as he we waited for a response.

"He's in no danger," Unohana replied, washing her hands in a basin held by Isane, "He has a slight fever. But the impact had caused Kurotsuchi to suffer a severe concussion. Normally, this would cause either a permanent head trauma or amnesia. But due to the fact that he was wearing his head gear, it only knocked him unconscious."

"Unconscious? Still?"

"Nothing serious. His body just requires rest after being so worked up for the last few days. He'll wake up in a day or two—"

"We don't have a day or two." Yamamoto interrupted sternly. Unohana didn't respond. "We need to ensure the broadcast from the living world to be ready by tomorrow night."

Yamamoto turned back towards the crowd. His eyes gave a deadly glance to Ikkaku who was slightly shivering by the fearful reiatsu emitted by the Captain Commander.

"Announce a meeting for all Captains," Yamamoto addressed Sasakibe. "Now."

* * *

Garganta

"I wish to go home."

Ulquiorra finally spoke out after receiving his current mission from Aizen. As much as he hated the job, _this _job, he cannot refuse. If Aizen-sama had trusted him more than the other Espada, he should be proud. But still, it that does not change the fact that he hated this specific job.

"Come on you sadistic airhead," Grimmjow patted Ulquiorra's back. He was glad his companion finally spoke out. The half an hour walk they had in the Graganta was getting pretty dull. "We get to watch the Finals! LIVE!"

"I told you I have no intentions to watch the ridiculous game. Our job is to plant the Garganta Frequency Transmitter and be gone"

"No, our job is to plant Szayel's crap and watch the game!" Grimmjow waved the tickets in front of Ulquiorra's face. "That's what Aizen said, and that's why I was asked to go with you since I have the tickets. And he said you need to have fun once in a while."

"This is not fun," Ulquiorra slapped Grimmjow's hand away from his face. "After we plant the crap— Garganta Frequency Transmitter, I will go home."

"Pfft," Grimmjow retorted. An opening was then can be seen, where the blue sky was suddenly visible and rays of sunlight shone through the portal to Hueco Mundo. Ulquiorra then fiddled something through his pocket.

"By the way," Ulquiorra said "Aizen-sama said we need to suppress our reiatsu to avoid being detected by Soul Society. To help with this he said we need to enter into an artificial body". He took out two small pills and handed one to Grimmjow. "Take this. It will create a physical layer around us and form an artificial body similar to a gigai. Our reiatsu will be contained inside the layer until the pill loses its effect or get it destroyed. They can only last for three days."

"Fancy gadget eh?" Grimmjow took the pill and swallowed it. A blue light than began to surround his body. The light than seemed to be solidifying and slowly covers the whole body with a new-formed human skin. His masked jaw had disappeared and became a clean lightly tanned cheek. The whole on his body was filled with artificial flesh. Ulquiorra experience the same phenomenon too, except in his case, a green light radiated around his body.

"I look like a human," Grimmjow commented, "and you look like an emo wannabe."

Ulquiorra ignored the comment and looked at his body. His dark black hair covered one of his green eyes. His Espada uniform was still there but the Number 4 had completely disappeared. He then walked closer to the exit and saw an overview of a large metropolitan city he was not familiar with. "Where are we?"

"Johannesburg." Grimmjow said with a grin. "And the first thing we gotta do to lay low is get a new set of clothes."

* * *

Living World

_Have_ _you ever kissed Rukia? _That question had been stuck in replay ever since he went out of the airport's restroom. _Stupid Toshiro, why would he ask a question like that? _

He was sitting in a van with everyone. The van was an eight-seater: two in the front (includes the driver seat) and six at the back in two rows. Isshin was driving and Chad was sitting at the passenger seat, still listening to his iPod. The girls sat in one row, which meant that all four have to share the three chairs. This was not a problem as Rukia was small enough to squeeze somewhere between Orihime, Yuzu and Karin. Ichigo sat between Ishida (who finally stopped shivering and began to look at a map of Johannesburg) and Toshiro. Toshiro fidgeted uncomfortably next to Ichigo, still holding his nose.

"It's not that smelly" Ichigo said to him in an irritated tone as low in volume as possible so the rest would not know what happened.

"I'm not taking the risk," Toshiro retorted. His voice was a little squeaky from holding his nose. "You could have the decency to warn me about the Hiroshima Bomb you're going to deploy. Now I'm exposed to its radiation."

Before Ichigo could make a comeback, Isshin stopped the van and turned around. "KIDS! WE ARE HERE!"

Everyone stepped out of the van and stretched their cramped up limbs before gazing at the five-story building in front of them. The building was at the centre of a small courtyard filled with green grass and pebbled path, giving it a very soothing environment despite the fact that it was sounded by other buildings in the noisy city. Its outer walls were painted with a dull yellow paint. The stains on it indicated that the building was not new but the beautifully arranged flowerpots on the entrance door made it look lavishly fresh. There are windows placed in a regular pattern up to the fifth floor. Next to each window was a small balcony with a sliding door and wooden railings on its edge. Above the mahogany entrance door was small wooden sign with neon lights that says "Bafana Inn".

"Urahara is a cheapskate," Karin was analyzing the whole building with a scowl in her face. "He could at least get us a proper hotel"

"Karin-chan, be grateful" Yuzu elbowed her twin,"He already paid for the whole trip."

After Isshin parked the van at one of the guest's parking spot, he led the others to the lobby to check them in. The inside was decorated with banners related to the World Cup. Dark red wallpaper decorated the whole wall of what seemed like a small living room with few couches and a flat screen TV placed on one of the four wooden pillars. The lobby was not crowded, with only their group, two men watching TV on the couch and a receptionist. The receptionist at the counter was a tanned man, and has a local African feature. He was probably in his uniform: a red vest over a dark grey buttoned-up shirt. A small black bowtie was neatly placed on his collar and a name tag was above his vest pocket on the left. 'Zuma Modise'

"Good evening sir," he spoke in a very fluent Japanese with a friendly smile "Welcome to Bafana Inn, how can I be of service?"

Ichigo and the others were surprised at the man's fluency in their language. Ishida walked towards the counter next to Isshin and readjusted his glasses.

"Your Japanese is surprisingly good. How'd you know we're from Japan?" Ishida asked the man.

"I did my Hotel Management course in a college in Japan a year ago." Zuma replied "With Japan in the finals a lot of Japanese had came to Johannesburg looking for an empty hotel to stay. I can safely assume you are Japanese seeing your distinctive Asian features." Ishida smiled impressively.. Zuma then sat on a chair at the counter and placed his hands on the computer's keyboard. "I hope you had made reservation because this inn is fully booked"

"Yes, we made reservation," Isshin reassured him. "Look under the name Uruhara Kisuke."

Zuma hit the keys on the keyboard gracefully similar to a stenographer in a courtroom. He stared at the monitor and smiled before turning to Isshin.

"Ah yes, three rooms." He stood up and opened the drawer on his reception desk. He took out three cards which is assumed to the key to their rooms and handed them to Isshin. "Here you go sir. Two of the rooms are on the fourth floor while the other is on the fifth." He handed him a registration book for signature.

"Thank you," Isshin signed the book and took the key.. "These rooms… had been paid for right?"

Zuma smiled "Certainly sir. It has been paid for five nights, including our buffet package"

"Splendid!" Isshin turned around and led the others to the elevator. "Lets have a short rest before heading out for lunch!"

A few minutes later, everyone was in their allocated rooms. The girls were in one room with two queen size beds located on the fifth floor. Toshiro shared a room with Ishida and Chad while unfortunately, Ichigo was stuck with his dimwitted father. Both rooms were on the fourth floor, and each have three single beds, a small televison and other basic furnitures you can find in a normal inn's room. And right now as he was trying to get some sleep, Isshin was humming loudly as he posted up an A4 sized picture of Masaki on the wall above his bed.

"Oh dear Masaki! We are in South Africa! Don't you just love it here," he lovingly spoke to the still poster of his belated wife. "And I have a feeling that some of our children will get me grandchildren very soon!"

"What the hell?" Ichigo stood on his bed and threw the lamp that was innocently sat still on the dresser next to his bed. Isshin dodged it in the most perfect timing ever and the lamp smashed into pieces on the wall. "Don't say some stupid stuff to mum!"

"Come on son!" Isshin happily hopped around his bed as he dodged every object Ichigo threw to him, ranging from pillows to vases. "If you would ask me nicely you could bring Rukia in the room tonight! "

"Shut up!" Ichigo threw his shoe

"I promise I will not interrupt you two!" Isshin dodged the shoe. "I'll sleep in the lobby tonight!"

"GET OUT!" Ichigo now jumped towards his father's bed. Isshin jumped off and ran straight to the door.

"I've packed the 'safety rubber' in my luggage bag if you wanna use them. They're strawberry flavoured!" were Isshin last words before leaving the room happily.

"Idiot!" Ichigo cursed mentally as he lay back on his bed. He glanced at his mother's picture and sigh. _What do you ever see in dad?_

* * *

Soul Society

The Captain's meeting looked less crowded than it should be. After Aizen's betrayal three of the captains were already gone. Kenpachi was not around and Mayuri was still half dead in his barracks. Toshiro was hanging around with the Kurosakis in the living world. That only left them with six captains. That fact however does not stop Yamamoto from commencing the important meeting.

"Seiretei is in an emergency state," he said without showing any emotion in his expression. "The World Cup finals is tomorrow night and we have no idea how to receive the broadcast on the television without the help of Kurotsuchi-Taichou"

"Can't we go to the living world ourselves and watch the game?" Komamura barked.

"We cannot afford to have anymore Captains out of Seiretei. We already have six left."

The whole room was quiet. Without Mayuri, no one knows how to set up the device. Not all of them have any knowledge on modern technology. The 12th Division's squad was merely following his orders.

"We could ask him," Soi Fon broke the silence.

As if knowing who she was referring to, the other captains looked at each other. Ukitake then supported her idea. "I agree. He was one of the 12th Division before."

"And he started the Research and Technology Department" Shunsui added.

"Not to mention that was banished in the living world for years," Soi Fon continued. "As much as I hated his attitude, he's the only solution we got"

Byakuya and Unohana nodded. Another silence filled the room as Yamamoto fiddled with his long white beard during his deep thought about the idea.

"In that case," Yamamoto stood up and knocked his cane on the floor "Bring in Uruhara Kisuke."

* * *

Living World

He raised his zanpakuto in the air and slashed with full force. The hollow's mask was cleanly sliced in half and it disintegrated into the air. Chuckling by himself, Kenpachi put his zanpakuto back into his sheath.

"That was a disappointment. Five hollows and three adjuchas and I didn't even break a sweat." He turned to Yachiru who was sitting on his gigai's lap as she watched the half and hour battle. "Where's the kid?"

Yachiru pointed to the trembling girl behind Kenpachi. The little girl's eyes were wide opened and filled with fear as she stared directly towards Kenpachi. Kenpachi walked in a slow pace towards her.

"You can see me?" he asked. His voice was rough like a general in an army addressing his soldiers. The little girl nodded her head and wiped her tears with her torn up brown dress. Kenpachi was surprised how she could see him in his Shinigami form. There was no chain attached to her chest, so she couldn't be a stray soul. She must've posses a strong reiatsu. The little girl muttered something in a foreign language that he could not comprehend.

"Ken-Chan!" Yachiru carried his gigai and approached them. "Get into your gigai. Uruhara-chan said that our Gigai were upgraded to be able to translate other language into Japanese. If you wanna speak to her you must get in."

Grunting heavily, Kenpachi entered his gigai. The little girl stood still while Yachiru walked to her and offered her hand. "Hello, I'm Yachiru Kusajishi. This is Ken-chan"

"Kenpachi." He corrected her as he wipes the dust off his top. "Zaraki Kenpachi."

The little girl was the same height as her. She had dark brown hair and skyblue eyes. Her skin was dirty with few scratches throughout her arms and legs. She was in a dirty brown dress and a grimy black footwear of what used to be a sandal. She reached out her hand to shake with Yachiru.

"My name," she whispered shakily "my name is Rachel Dumitre. I'm just like you. "

"Hm?" Kenpachi shoot up his eyebrow when the Dumitre girl pointed to him.

She continued "A Shinigami."

* * *

**Chapter done. **

**Tonnes of writers block occurred here and again the multiplots unabled me to thicken the plot more than it should be.**

**The Bafana Inn is fictional. I took the name from the South Africa Soccer team. So are Zuma Modise and Dumitre. (A mixed name from their players)**

**The Grimmjow and Ulquioora having a human artificial body might sound absurd and all the silly gadgets I put here was just to support the plotline.**

**No fluffy moments here yet, hopefully in the next chapter to come.**

**Until then**

**=B**

* * *

***Kon Flies across screen***

**SHINIGAMI WORLD CUP FEVER!**

_The room was pitch black. I felt like I was hovering over a deep abyss of darkness. I feel light. Light as a kid. That's when suddenly a small mirror appeared out of nowhere. I looked at the reflection. I was small and young. My blue hair was short and messy. A worn out robe was the only cloth that covers my body. My zanpakuto is missing._

"_Nemu!" I yelled helplessly as the response was nil. I swear if I see her I will slap her for not being any assistance. Suddenly the setting around me was shifted into a soccer stadium. The stadium was filled with men with shinigami robes and dark silhouettes was hovering their face. Then out of nowhere, a soccer ball was flying right at me at an amazing speed. I barely dodged it when another one came. I shunpoed my best as the soccer balls kept coming and coming. _

_When the balls stopped flying, a larger ball crashed the stadium walls and rolled towards me. My body was unexplainably stiff as if a strong restraining kido was cast upon me. With horror I screamed to the top of my lungs as the ball got closer. My screeching voice drifted away as it crush all the bones in my body.._

"Isane-san," Hanataro pulled Isane's robe and pointed to the trembling Mayuri who was frantically sweating and moving on his bed. "Is he okay?"

"He'll be fine," Isane took a wet cloth and placed it on Mayuri's head. "He's probably having a bad dream."


	4. First Foul

**BLEACH: World Cup Fever

* * *

**

**Bcsaturdai: HAHA yeah I know it would be more fun if Isshin and Ichigo share the same room. LOL and I love making lots of twist in my story. My only worry was if I overdo it until I cant end with a proper ending for the plot. LOL**

**101fallingrock: I love Ken and Yachiru so I have to put them as crazy as I guess you can say seven captains if you include Yamamoto. I guess I didn't see him as a captain so I left him out. HAHA**

**Sayo-chan64: HAHHA Jonasburger was random. I was trying to type Johannesburg when I typoed it as Johansburgr, so yeah. Oooh Buzz Lightyear! I watched the third sequel and it was awesome (Off topic much) and Thank you for liking the Shinigami Golden lol

* * *

**

**DISCLAIMER****: I do not own Bleach or the World Cup.

* * *

**

**CHAPTER 4**

**First Foul**

Living World

The summer heat of July drowns Karakura Town in its heat. And Uruhara seems to be enjoying every second of it. He was lying in the room in a sleeveless white top and basketball shorts, facing the fan that was rotating on the ceiling. His legs and arms were spread open, with one hand frantically flipping the paper fan on his sweating face. Surrounding him were at least eight table fans, each with different electronic brands. The green-striped hat he always wore was still on his head, tilted downwards to the face. Yoruichi was purring in her sleep as she was lying on the coffee table napping in her feline form.

"Why am I the only one working my ass off in this hot day?" Jinta entered the room carrying three pile of boxes. "Can't any of you lazy bums help me?"

"Jinta-kun, keep quiet or you'll wake Yoruichi up." Uruhara tilted his hat a little to get a small view of the angry red-head. Jinta's face dropped at the statement, remembering the awful things Yoruichi would do to him if she was woken up without any good reason during one of her afternoon nap.

"Why can't I go to the swimming pool with Ururu, Tessai and the freeloader?"

"Because you wrecked the air-conditioner this morning," Uruhara smiled and rolled his body to another part of the room as the one he was on before was getting warm. "This is your punishment."

"Hey! Renji's head was the one that smashed the air-con!"

"Ah yes, but you're the one who smashed his head on the air-con. So keep quiet and do your chores."

"I've done everything you asked me," Jinta put the boxes on the shelves. "Now can I go to the swimming pool? Its getting hotter and I'm sweating!"

"I thought you have a geography project to work on? Something about listing down the capitals of the world. Always finish your homework before have fun," Uruhara was now faced down on the floor, so his speech was slightly muffled.

"I do. But I can't find my world map that I bought last week. All I could find was a map of Africa."

Uruhara jolted his body a little before giving out a slight chuckle much to Jinta's annoyance. Then he heard the shop's bell rang, indicating that a customer was entering the store. "Can you see who that is Jinta-kun?"

Jinta reluctantly went out of the living room, slamming the door on his way out. Few minutes later the door was open again and he felt a certain reiatsu filling the room.

"Hello there," Uruhara still lying down smiled "how can I help you today Byakuya-san?"

* * *

The corridor looked pretty much the same as the lobby. The walls were dark red, with a wooden floor hidden beneath a dark green carpet. The lights on the walls were simple lamps, just like the one you could find on the street, radiating soothing yellow glow that laminates the hallway with a fair luminosity. Wooden doors for each room were on both sides, each with a room number consisting of the floor number followed by a dash then a room number. Orihime was walking in a slow pace as she carefully read the number of each door, intending to find the boys. She stopped at a door with the number '4-17' on a golden plate and gently knock the door.

"Kurosaki-kun?" Orihime knocked again after hearing no response.

"Wait please," Ichigo's voice was heard much to Orihime's relief. The sound of unbolted locks and door knob was heard. When the door opened, Orihime's attention was distracted and she suddenly felt a slight warmth on her cheek. In front of her very own eyes was a wet, topless Ichigo with a towel dangling from his left shoulder. His hair was draped with water, causing his orange hair to stick to his forehead. The only cloth that covers his well packed muscular body was a long black sweatpants.

"I was in the shower, sorry." Ichigo rubbed his wet orange hair with the towel. Orihime was standing still at the door. "Inoue?" he waved his hand in front of her eyes as she seemed to be drowned in her thoughts. "What's up?"

After somehow managed to snap back into reality, she shook her head frantically. "Kurosaki-kun, I wanna ask if you would like to join me, Chad and Ishida to town for some exploring?"

"Exploring?" Ichigo signaled her to walk in the room as he put on a plain white t-shirt. "I'm kinda tired today, probably a little jetlag from the trip. I think I'll take a nap instead."

"Oh, I understand." Orihime smiled as she turned back to walk towards the door. She was feeling a little disappointed that Ichigo refused the offer. Before leaving the room she turned to Ichigo and chirps happily "I'll see you later then!"

"Inoue," Ichigo arranged his bed and sat on it. He looked at the ever-cheerful girl at the door. "Be careful. This is not Karakura. Watch out for bad guys and don't get lost."

"Okay." Orihime then walked down the corridor, feeling slightly happier that Ichigo was concerned about her well-being. Whistling some kind of Sesame Street tune, she enters the elevator and pressed the button with the label 'G'.

* * *

Down at the lobby, Chad was sitting comfortably on the couch watching the television with few other guest of the hotel which he met on the way down, and fortunately they were Japanese so it would be easy to start a conversation. But being Chad, he had no intention to begin any small talk. The other guest stroked up few topics on their own, and from time to time they would talk to him where he would respond in less than ten words, if they were lucky..

Ishida on the other hand was at the receptionist counter talking to Zuma about something that Ishida seems to be listening with full attention. He had a notebook at one hand and a ball-point pen the other, jotting down something as if he Zuma was dictating a speech. After few minutes, he waved goodbye to the hotel manager and stood next to Chad's couch.

"Zuma showed me few places worth visiting here in Johannesburg. He even called us a taxi, which should be arriving in a few minutes." Ishida waved his notebook on air and his facial remark showed enthusiasm like a kid on a field trip. He then looked around the room. "Where are Hitsugaya and Inoue?"

"Toshiro went back to the room saying something about the hot weather." Chad stood up and waved goodbye to his new acquaintances in the lobby. "Orihime is calling Ichigo."

Then the elevator door opened and allowing a dancing Orihime to twirl across the lobby to the two boys who was waiting at the entrance. Her long skirt swayed gracefully in the same pace as her long orange hair, causing Ishida to blush.

"Ishida-kun? Do you have sunburn?" Orihime looked at Ishida's face innocently shifting her heaf a little sideways quizzically.

"No, no. It's nothing." Getting more red, he pushed the bridge of his glasses with the notebook.

"I think he's blushing." Chad commented, still standing still.

"Blushing? Why?" Orihime walked closer to Ishida, causing his face to turn super red. He could smell her perfume, her sweet rose perfume that she always put on during school.

"I'm not blushing!" Ishida waved his hands before gaining back his normal composure and shifted the awkward topic. "So where's Kurosaki?"

"He's taking a nap because he still felt a little jetlagged." Orihime responded.

"Figures." Ishida put the notebook in his shirt pocket. "Well since Rukia too didn't wanna go, it's just us three then."

"Eh, Hitsugaya-kun isn't joining us?"

"No. He went back to our room. Maybe the weather is too hot for him."

Nodding slowly with the shape of an 'o' on her lips, the trio walked out the hotel entrance and looked at the wonderful city view of the street. Tall buildings were reaching out the bright blue sky. The sun was up high, since it was almost noon. On the street lights were banners, all advertising the World Cup 2010. Foreigners can be seen strolling down the sidewalks and Ishida can spot more Japanese, Chad took a deep breath and smiled at the new city scent. Moments later, a taxi stopped in front of the hotel.

"There's our ride." Ishida walked towards the yellow cab and the others followed.

"Why don't we walk? It's such a lovely day" Orihime asked

"Well, alright then." Ishida talked to the taxi driver before the cab drove away. Ishida, Chad and Orihime then began walking down the street and Orihime tried her best to greet every passer-by in English, although Ishida asked her to stop her over-friendly gesture.

Chad looked at Ishida as he held both of Orihime's shoulder in an attempt to stop her from bowing down to everyone. He smiled, put the earphone of his Ipod to his ear and looked up at the sky.

"Johannesburg, here we come."

* * *

"Shinigami!" Yachiru chirped happily as she danced in circles while holding Rachel's delicate hands. Kenpachi sat on the ground as he watched the whole thing.

"Hey kid," Kenpachi, still unmoved, addressed the new girl "If you're a Shinigami, why didn't you attack the hollows that were chasing after you?"

Rachel stopped moving as Yachiru hopped towards Kenpachi's shoulder. Yachiru was beginning to wonder the same thing and she hates wondering about something she cannot find answers to.

"You're right Ken-chan. And where's your shinigami robe?" Yachiru now dropped her cheerful face and put up a curious one.

"I..well you see—" Rachel stopped as she suddenly felt a strong Reiatsu nearby. Kenpachi and Yachiru felt it too. Rachel began running across the grassland leaving the two 11th division members behind.

"Hey! Where you going to, kid?" Kenpachi yelled and stood up.

"You didn't answer the question!" Yachiru added while Kenpachi began to run after Rachel.

"Follow me!" Rachel yelled back while she run. "They're back at the village! We must hurry before more people dies!"

"What? Who?" Kenpachi asked while running, carrying Yachiru and both of their bagpack at the same time. "If there's another fight waiting for me, count me in!"

Back at Bafana Inn, Karin and Yuzu had just finished unpacking their bags so they lied down on their bed. Rukia was having a shower in the bathroom. Yuzu then stood up and walked towards the window to enjoy the scenery.

"Karin!" Yuzu called her twin excitedly "The city looks wonderful!"

"Yeah, yeah. It all look the same to me." Karin rolled over he bed before sitting down at the edge. "I wanna see the soccer stadium!"

"You can't see it from here." Yuzu put one hand on her forehead to shade her eye from the sun as she scout the city from her window. "Why didn't you join Inoue-chan and the boys exploring if you wanna see it?"

"Because."

"Because..?" Yuzu prolong the last syllable expecting Karin to continue her fragment sentence. "Because Toshiro might go too?"

Karin looked at Yuzu's smiling face with a wide eye before giving out a slight blush. "NO! What makes you say that?"

"Because you haven't spoken to him at all after the flight." Yuzu walked towards her sister's bed and patted her back. "Anything wrong between you two?"

Karin had no idea what to reply. She wanted to say because Toshiro accidentally kissed her, but that's not the reason why she was mad. No. She was happy about the kiss. What made her mad was the fact Toshiro ignored her after that. Every time Karin tried to approach him in the plane, he pretended he was sleeping. At the airport he hid himself in the restroom until the van arrived and in the inn he just stayed in his room. Karin hates ignorance. Not that she care if Toshiro would ever speak to her ever again. But why does she feel a little hurt inside every time those teal eyes avoided hers?

"Yuzu, you're too young to understand" Karin said before slumping her face back to her pillow. What kind of answer is that? That would imply that she and Toshiro _do _have problem between them.

"But I'm the same age as you. We're twins remember" Yuzu pouted before shaking Karin's lying body as she was not responding to her statement "Karin! Talk to me. Karin!"

"Yuzu!" Rukia shouted from the bathroom, giving Karin a major relief that she could avoid answering Yuzu's question. "Could you fetch my towel in my bag? I forgot to take it in with me."

"Okay Rukia, just a minute." Yuzu rushed to Rukia's bed and opened the bunny shaped suitcase. (Typical Rukia. Although Yuzu thought it's quite adorable.) She unzipped the suitcase and suddenly felt an object flying out of it and hit her face. It didn't hurt at all because the impact as caused by a soft object, like a cushion, or a pillow or a..

"Kon?" Karin yelled pointing the lion plushie that landed on Rukia's bed. "Yuzu, why did you bring him along?"

"Bostov? I didn't bring him. He must have hitched a ride on Rukia's bag before we left home." Yuzu looked around for Kon who somehow had disappeared. "Where'd he go?" Both twins now search their room for the orange plushie. They knew about Kon's identity for a while now after they caught him humping Rukia's leg during her afternoon nap. Yuzu still prefer to call him Bostov but stopped putting dress on him. Karin on the other hand used him to help her in soccer practice, and it was not a pretty sight at all; for Kon at least.

"Nee-san! I got your towel right her—" A sudden crashing sound was heard from the bathroom followed by few thuds, a glass shattering, a scream from Rukia and a gargling sound of someone drowning. Rukia then came out of the bathroom with her towel wrapped around her small body.

"What is he doing here?" she pointed towards the bathtub where Kon was floating lifelessly on the half filled tub of warm water. If he could bleed, the whole bathroom would probably be red right now.

"He hitched into your suitcase." Karin yawned before lying back on her bed while Yuzu picked up the damped half-torned plushie back to the bedroom.

"I saw…heaven.." muttered Kon as Yuzu twisted him up to rinse the water in his cotton-filled body only to earn him more pain from the angry midget.

* * *

Toshiro was immersing himself in cold water in the bathtub. He was feeling somehow irritated and the only thing that would calm him down was a nice cold bath. He blamed the irritation on the hot weather but deep inside him he knew what was the real cause of his dismay. He was a jerk.

Yes he admitted he ignored Karin after what had happen in the plane. He was acting childish over one peck at the cheek. And he had no idea why. It's not like he hated the kiss. He actually enjoyed it. But somehow he cannot stand to face Karin anymore. Was he afraid that he might have developed some kind of affection for that raven haired Kurosaki? Maybe it's just the fact that Karin might think of him as overstepping the friendship boundary. What are the chances that she would feel the same about him? They had been friends, and that was all to it. Nothing more, nothing less. Either way, he have to apologize for giving her the cold treatment..make that a colder treatment than usual.

After bath he put on a black vest and a three quarter slacks before walking out of the room. He put the hotel card-key in his pocket and went out towards the hallway. He entered the elevator and pressed the button to the fifth floor. When the elevator gave out a small 'ding' as it reached the floor, Toshiro walked towards the opening door and stumbled upon someone.

"Ooops, I'm sorry. I didn't look wh—" Toshiro stopped and looked at that someone who he had accidentally ran into. "Karin." Both of them glared at eachother, with Toshiro standing between the elevator doors to prevent it from closing while Karin stood with arms crossed just outside it. None wanted to say something for at least fifteen seconds.

"Are you going out of the elevator or not? Don't block the entrance," Karin said coldly and pushed aside Toshiro as she enters the elevator. Toshiro simply smirked and walked out of the elevator. Just before the elevator door closed, he quickly grabbed the edge of the door, forcing it to slide open again.

"What are you doing?" Karin said, still sounded cold but there is an uneven tone of surprised at the end of the sentence.

"I'm going to the lobby," Toshiro pressed the Ground Floor button on the elevator's button and leaned against the metal wall at one corner while Karin stood at the other corner. A melody was playing at the intercom but both remained still. Toshiro than let out a sigh and said "I'm sorry."

"Huh?" Karin was surprised by what she just heard. The ice cold captain apologized? That can't be right. "What did you say?"

"I'm not repeating it. You heard me." Toshiro shrugged as he ran his fingers through his white hair. Karin then walked to his corner of the small elevator and pushed him to the wall. "What are you—" Toshiro said, wide-eyed.

"Say it again." Karin insisted, her elbow was pinning Toshiro on his chest while the other hand was on her hip.

"No..no." Toshiro was stuttering. Karin's face was unbelievably near to his, nearer than it was back at the airplane. The same scent of the same lavender shampoo flooded his nose. Her eyes met his with great tension. His heart was beating vigorously and he feels the blood rushing up to his cheeks. Karin's breath was fast too, as he can feel it on his face. Under his nervous condition, Toshiro emits a cold radiant from his body, causing the inside of the elevator to be covered with ice. Karin let go of him, awed by what he just did. The whole room was covered with pure white ice and the atmosphere felt like winter. Suddenly the elevator jerked to a sudden stop, causing both of them to lose their balance and fall. Before they realized what happened, Karin was on the floor and pinned down by Toshiro's weight who was facing her and his lips….was on hers.

Both of their eyes were opened and looked deeply in each other. None wanted to move from their fallen position until Karin pushed Toshiro up. Toshiro handed her a hand in standing up and Karin took it hesitantly.

"I'm sorry." This time Karin was the one who apologized.

"What for?" Toshiro asked.

"For what just happened…you know."

"Why? Its not your fault. Its not anyone's fault. We just…fell."

"Oh..okay."

"I'm sorry for ignoring you earlier Karin."

"Forget about it."

"Oh..okay."

"What just happened? The ice I meant."

"I guess… I just got nervous."

"Why were you nervous?" Karin looked at him intensely as if she was expecting an answer she wanted to hear. By that time the ice had disappeared and melted away and the elevator began moving again. Toshiro just avoided the question and waited until the elevator door opened at the ground floor, causing Karin to grunt.

"Is everything okay?" asked a worried looking Zuma outside the elevator door. He was holding a toolbox. "I heard a funny sound in the elevator shaft and wanted to check it out."

"Everything is okay." Karin reassured him. She could not actually say that the elevator got frozen for a moment. No one would believe her. By the time she got out, Toshiro was already halfway across the lobby.

"Hey wait up." Karin yelled to Toshiro. "Where are you heading to?"

"No where." He looked at the outside view through one of the windows in the lobby and turned to Karin. "Do you want to take a walk outside?"

Karin looked at him. His face was cold as usual but his voice was soft and sweet. "Sure." She wrapped her arm around his neck and messed his hair up. "I'll race you to the front yard!" And with that she dashed out the door.

Toshiro shook his head and rearranged his messed up hair before smiling at the running Karin. Something about that girl just made him feel so lighthearted, whether they were just friends, or becoming more than that, Toshiro decided to let nature takes its course. If Karin was happy, and he was happy, and that's all he wanted. As much as Toshiro wanted to run after her, he just walked slowly towards the panting Karin. Then both of them walked together down the street.

* * *

"Can you feel the vibe?"

"No."

"Come on, feel the World Cup vibe around you. The atmosphere, the people, the buildings. Hear the sound of soccer ball rustling down the street. The colorful flags and jerseys around us. The sound of horns and trumpets filling the air with its—"

"Let us just finish the job. I wish to go back to Hueco Mundo as soon as possible,"

"Kill-joy.."

Ulquiorra put his hands in his newly stolen dark brown jeans pocket and walked into the rustling crowd of World Cup Fanatics. Grimmjow sighed and spun his cap towards the back before following his partner. He smirked at the fact how well they blended in with the humans. No holes in his chest, no mask covering his jaw. When they first landed on Johannesburg they snatched few clothes from a local department store and Grimmjow cero-ed their way out, causing the whole store to be in fire. The police assumed it as a delinquent act of the locals using homemade firecrackers and Molotovs. Grimmjow now wore black cap, a yellow Official World Cup T-shirt and a black jean. Ulquiorra wore a brown jeans and a black sweater with "I wanna go home" printed across the chest.

They were currently outside of Soccer City, the largest soccer stadium in South Africa with the capacity of over 90 000 people. This was where the opening ceremony was held and this is where the final game will be too. Even though the finals is tomorrow, large crowds are already gathered here just to enjoy the festival held outside the stadium to celebrate Sounth African Team achievements and the upcoming closing ceremony. Stalls selling different kinds of merchandises and foods were set up on neat rows of two on both side of the road around the stadium The crowds were made up majority of the locals and Japanese and few other people from different parts of the world that possess the world cup vibe. Too bad Ulquiorra was not one of them.

"Hold this while I buy some pants on that stall." Ulquiorra took out a wallet from his pocket and took out a local ten-dollar bill before handing the wallet to Grimmjow.

"You have a wallet? Why do you keep a wallet? And you got cash! I went to all that trouble trashing the department store trying to steal some clothes for nothing! You are a cheapskate you know that. And one more thing, why do you wanna buy pants? You already got that jeans?" Grimmjow continuously asked while taking the wallet from his partner's hands..

Ulquiorra looked at Grimmjow with a stoic stare, slowly digesting all the questions thrown to him before answering, "Being in the real world more often than you, I have adapted the lifestyle of the humans. You may not know how handy it can be when you got ready cash to use in your errands. Being a barbaric goon such as yourself; stealing and trashing places will only lead to more attention. But since you were enjoying your own way of 'shopping' I thought I'll just let you be. It will save my money anyway. And I am buying new pants because the one I snatched was too small." He walked towards one of the stalls that was selling clothes, mostly soccer jerseys. Ulquiorra paid for a grey trackpants and walked into the nearby restroom to change.

Grimmjow rubbed the back of his neck as he stared at Ulquiorra's humanly behaviour. "Cheapskate." He muttered softly and opened the wallet that Ulquiorra handed him. There were few cash so he took half. Between the few ten dollar bills he stumbled acroos a picture. He took it out to stare wide-eyed at the passport sized photo of a sad Inoue Orihime. It was during the time she was abducted to Hueco Mundo as she was wearing an Espada uniform. The girl was sitting down on a chair looking at the moon and few tears can be seen as shining freckles caused by the moonlight. Judging by how the photo was taken, is seems like Ulquiorra, or someone, took her picture in secret. This left Grimmow with a big smile across his face. "My oh my. Our little Ulquoirra has a crush..and a stalker."

Grimmjow put the photo back onto the wallet and put them in his jeans back pocket. Since Ulquiorra taking his sweet time changing in the restroom, he strolled further down the road visiting stalls by stalls doing some window-shopping. He came across a hotdog stand and began to drool. "I always wanted to try one of those." He walked to the vendor said "Two large hotdogs and make it snappy." He ruffled in his pockets and took out a ten-dollar bill he had taken from Ulquiorra's wallet and handed it to the hot dog man. 'I should get one for Ulquiorra too. This is his money anyway' he thought before addressing the hotdog vendor again. "Give me one baby-size hotdog too." While waiting, a local guy, probably a teenager, bumped into him causing Grimmjow to almost losing his footing.

"HEY WATCH IT BRAT!" Grimmjow shoved the teen away leaving him apologizing in a language Grimmjow cannot understand before running away. Few minutes later he took all three hotdogs and approached the restroom where Ulquiorra was waiting in his hands shoved in his new track pants. "I got you a hotdog!"

"Did you steal that?" Ulquiorra asked, looking at the baby-size hotdogs in Grimmjow's hands.

"Nope. I bought them." Grimmjow answered, pointing his thumb to his smiling face.

"With what?"

"Money, duh."

"Whose money?"

"Yours of course."

Ulquiorra narrowed his eyes while snatching the large hotdogs from Grimmjow's other hand. "My money, so I get the bigger one."

"Cheapskate." Grimmjow said with his mouth full of hotdogs.

"Now give me my wallet before you spend more of my money on useless purposes." Ulquiorra demanded and gracefully took a small bite out of his hotdog.

"Yeah, yeah." Grimmjow wiped his dirty hands on his jeans and reached for the backpocket, only to find out it was empty. He began touching his other pockets nervously hoping that Ulquiorra's wallet was somewhere there. "Oh shit."

"Hmm?" Ulquiorra shot one eyebrow up as he looked at the restless Espada.

"I think," Grimmjow paused to add a dramatic effect " I just got pickpocket-ed"

Ulquiorra dropped his hotdog while his eyes stayed at Grimmjow's carefree face. He put one hand on his face and shook his head before putting them back in his pocket and walked off. "We have to get it back or Aizen-sama will be angry."

"Huh?"

"The transmitter.." Ulquiorra paused to add another dramatic effect, "is in the wallet."

* * *

"Let me get this straight Byakuya-san," Uruhara stood up and covered his face with a fan to hide his smile, "Yama-jii wants me to go to Soul Society?"

"Yes." Byakuya said as he stood in front of the door, not moving at all after his first entry to the room.

"Even when he said I was banished from Soul Society?"

"Yes"

"Because he wants to watch the World Cup on TV?"

"Yes"

"But they do not know how to set up the equipments?"

"Yes."

"Because Mayuri is unconscious?"

"Yes"

"Because a soccer ball got him square on the face?"

"Yes"

"And I was the only one who knows how since no one else in Soul Society have any idea about modern technology?"

"Yes"

"And you are in love with Yoruichi?"

"Ye—hmmph."

"Almost got you there Byakuya-san" Uruhara pointed his fan to Byakuya and smiled

Uruhara stood up and stretched his body from left to right and put on his green coat. Byakuya's face was somehow red after the last question, causing Uruhara to chuckle mentally. "Well, I guest it is better than staying in this heat in Karakura."

"We must go now. The Captain Commander is anxious." Byakuya slowly walked out of the door down the hall, ignoring Yoruichi's flying kiss on the way.

"Easy there. I'm coming." Uruhara followed behind Byakuya and waved at Yoruichi "Tell Tessai to take care of the shop when I'm gone,"

After that, they both went through the Senkai gate.

* * *

**Damn Japan was out of the WC, and they were the only Asians left. **

**But they put up an awesome game! =)**

**This one took me a while to write.**

**Not much Ichiruki (again). I began to look like a Hisukarin main pairing huh? **

**I will try to fix that by focusing on ichiruki in laterchapters..**

**I still feel few OOC among the characters, if you wanna point out be my guest. Especially Grimm and Ulqui.**

**Oh and I need someone to help me find out what time the final match will**

**Be on 11****th**** July in African time. I need it for my story.**

**I don't really have much internet access here so if you guys can help, you are awesome =D**

**Review and Read.**

**=B

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**

***Kon flies across the screen***

**SHINIGAMI WORLD CUP FEVER!**

Walking through the crowd, Grimmjow can somehow sense that Ulquiorra is pissed at him. So he began to start a small talk, hoping that it would help him to cool off.

"How'd you get the money?" Grimmjow asked.

"I work." Ulquiorra answered, without looking at him.

"Work? Where?"

"In a night club in Karakura, every Saturday"

"As what?"

"A stand-up comedian."

Grimmjow stopped walking, jaw-dropped so low that he had to use his hands to put it back in place. "Bullshit! I don't believe you! You look like a stuck up sadist all the time, you can't be a comedian."

"I do not expect you to believe me." Ulquiorra replied, still walking.

"Tell me a joke. Or a riddle, Make me laugh."

"No."

"Come on man, just one."

"Fine."

Ulquiorra turned around and stood still, his head staring at the blue sky as he search through his mind for a suitable joke to tell Grimmjow.

"Which mouse stands on two legs?" Ulquiorra asked him.

"Duh… Mickey Mouse! That's not even funny at—"

"Which dog stands on two legs?" Ulquiorra cut through his remark.

"Simple. Goofy!"

"Which duck stands on two legs?"

"Donald. Duck."

Grimmjow stood proud until Ulquiorra flick his nose with his sharp nails.

"Wrong," Ulquiorra replied. "**ALL** ducks stands on two legs. I got you good. Or as how the kids say it, 'You got owned!' "

After that he walked away with a smile, leaving Grimmjow cursing and hitting his head for letting himself outwitted by Ulquiorra's dumb riddles.

**(DISCLAIMER: Mickey, Donald and Goofy belongs to Disney.)**


	5. Offside

**BLEACH: World Cup Fever

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**

**Thank You for those who took time to REVIEW and for those who**

**Read but DID NOT REVIEW and for those who review but DID NOT READ.**

**(Does that make any sense?)**

_**Bcsaturdai, Eradona, 101fallingrock, feich and HitsuKarin-sama

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**_

**DISCLAIMER****: I do not own Bleach or the World Cup.

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**

**CHAPTER 5**

**Offside**

Living World

Flames ate up the roof of the large wooden hut caused by the Cero fired by the Menos Grande. Kenpachi's reiatsu was fired up as he happily slashed all of the hollows one by one. Yachiru was with Rachel gathering up the villagers to a safer spot away from the fierce battle. They were at least twenty hollows and fifteen Menos Grande left, and to Kenpachi this was just another warm up exercise before sparring with Ichigo later, if he found him.

After an hour of slashing, dodging, jumping and a whole lot of laughing, Kenpachi put his katana back to its sheath. The small village was wrecked. Half of it was burnt down during the battle while some got crushed by the large hollows. Overall, the village was still habitable. It looked similar to one of the poorest district of Rukongai, except that the building design was based on some African ancient architecture; round wooden house with hay as roof while some used zinc plates. The houses were arranged in a radial manner, all surrounding one tall pole stood high in the center with ancient carvings on it.

"Yachiru! Where are you?" Kenpachi walked through out the village yelling for his vice-captain.

"Ken-chan!" the pink-head jumped happily in the air in front of a small house. "Here! Here!"

She led him inside the house were Rachel was sitting down around the villagers who were trembling The dark room was lit up by a small lantern hung on the side of the door and at one corner Kenpachi could see their Gigai sitting silently on the floor. The mod soul they got from Uruhara were just like what he wanted; silent and obedient, including Yachiru's. He sat down near the entrance door and Yachiru hopped gently towards Rachel and the trembling children. Yes, the villagers were all kids; skinny, dark toned crying little boys and girls with the oldest at least 12 year old. There are around twelve of them. But that was not the only thing that bothered Kenpachi's mind. All this children have chains attached to their chest, and the chains led to that tall pole at the center of the village.

Kenpachi leaned on the wall with his eyes fixed on Rachel. Rachel looked at the giant man. Her sky blue eyes now calmer and more relax. She walked slowly and sat next to Kenpachi and put up her hand facing him. Before Kenpachi could ask what she was doing, her hands radiated a bright yellow light and Kenpachi felt his wounds from the battle closed up and healing itself. After Rachel stopped, he chuckled a little before asking her "You're a kido geek huh?"

Rachel narrowed her eyes and nod and pointed to his Gigai. Yachiru then pulled his captain's hand and said "Ken-chan! Remember, you can't understand what she's saying unless you enter your Gigai!"

"Right," Kenpachi stood up and grunted. "That's so troublesome, why can't you enter yours and translate whatever she said to me."

"Sure thing Ken-chan."

Few minutes later, Yachiru in her Gigai were talking to Rachel next to Kenpachi, who was rubbing his head.

"I said tell me what she says!" Kenpachi said in annoyance.

"I am! She said (insert foreign language here)" Yachiru innocently repeated every word Rachel said.

"No! I mean, tell me what she says in Japanese!"

"But Ken-chan don't be silly," Yachiru rubbed Kenpach's forehead "She said nothing in Japanese, She doesn't know our language." With that Yachiru laughed causing Kenpachi to stood up and enter his own Gigai.

"Silly brat, I have to do everything myself," muttered Kenpachi as he reluctantly walked to his meditating Gigai.

After entering his Gigai, he looked at the group of children who were now sleeping peacefully. He then walked again towards Yachiru and Rachel.

"Alright kid," he sat down at his previous place "explain."

"Go on Ra-chan!" Yachiru patted Rachel's back while smiling. "You can tell Ken-chan what you told me."

Rachel looked at Kenpachi for a moment before beginning. "As I told you before, I am a Shinigami. Well more or less."

Kenpachi eyebrows twitched before Rachel continues. "These kids were the children of this village one hundred years ago. One night, a large hollow attacked the village, killing half of its people. However the local witchdoctor managed to cast a spell and trap the hollow within a sacred pole. But there was a condition. Each year, a child sacrifice must be made. Children were killed and burned in front of the sacred pole to prevent the hollow from escaping."

Rachel stopped as she tried to stop tears flowing down her cheek.

"Fifty years later, I was the last sacrifice," Rachel continued ". After I die, I realized I was attached to the sacred pole by a long chain, just like them" She pointed to the sleeping children. "After my sacrifice, there were no more children left in the village so most of the villagers moved out to leave the cursed place. And because there were no sacrifices being made, the hollow escaped and attacked the village filled with trembling souls of children. But fortunately a man in black robe came and attacked it but the hollow ran away. He introduced himself as a Shinigami."

Rachel stood up and walked towards the door, looking at the blue sky. Kenpachi and Yachiru were still sitting down as they were attentively listening to the girl's tale.

"How'd you become a Shinigami?" Kenpachi broke the silence.

"I was the witchdoctor's grand daughter," Rachel added, a small smile appeared on her lips. "The shinigami said I possess a strong reiatsu, strong enough to become a shinigami."

Rachel then sat down at the door and Yachiru walked towards her and sat next to her. "What happened next Ra-chan? And the hollow?"

"The escaped hollow had evolved to what you people refer to as an Arrancar. Once in a while, the Arrancar would come and attack the village to eat the children's soul that was chained to the pole. As time passes, the souls here attracted more hollows and they would try to eat us up, but the Shinigami managed to send them away."

"I don't understand," Kenpachi interrupted. "Why can't that Shinigami perform Soul Burial to all of you? You heard about Soul Society don't ya?"

"The chains," Rachel held the cursed shackles on the floor from one of the children's chest before sighing. "They were tied up to the sacred poles with a strong spiritual bond. That bond must be broken for our souls to be free again. That's what the shinigami said."

"Where's your chain?" Yachiru asked

"When I became a shinigami, the chain disappeared."

"Lets just let Ken-chan cut the chain off!" Yachiru chirped happily "Or maybe break down that pole!"

"We can't" Kenpachi immediately said. "Look at the pole. Everything around it were either burned or damaged during my fight earlier, but it remained intact without a scratch. It must be protected by a strong kido or some shit like that."

"Than how can we break the bond?" Yachiru asked, now putting on a thinking pose.

"By killing the Arrancar," Rachel answered. Her voice trailed into a sob as she remembered what it had done to the village.

"The shinigami wanted to free us so he hunted the Arrancar down. But before that he trained me to be a shinigami so I can protect the village while he was gone. We trained for two years. I excel in my Kido. I found my zanpakuto. Then, after he taught me everything he knew, he went to hunt the Arrancar, but then he never came back."

Rachel then cried heavily. Even Kenpachi felt a deep sympathy for the little girl. She was still a young soul, but already under the burden of protecting her fellow friends. She had fought hollows for years and still stuck in this wretched place.

"I looked for him for a few days but I can't find him. His reiatsu was gone. I figured out he was killed. When I came back, few of the souls in the village already died in the hands of the other hollows." Rachel said with a very sad tone. "I disappointed him, I was supposed to stay here and guard the village but…but.."

Yachiru patted her back to comfort her. No one knew what to say to her at that exact moment. Rachel wiped her tears and gave a faint smile to the concerning Yachiru.

"After that, I never left the village and fought any hollows that attacked us. But when the Arrancar came, he would always beat me in the battle and ate one soul before leaving. When he left he would laughed at me, saying that he saved me as the last dessert. This went on for almost fifty years, and I had witnessed a lot of my friends get eaten up because I was too weak to protect them." Rachel than turned her glance towards Kenpachi.

"Today, I can feel something deep within me. It has this pressurized feeling, like when you were squeezed between two walls. So I took a little trip out of the village to look for it but stumbled across a swarm of hollows That's when I felt a reiatsu. Your reiatsu, . You may be our only hope to enter Soul Society."

Kenpachi looked at the young girl's face that had given birth to a small smile. He himself chuckled at the name that was addressed to him. He then stood up and put up a big smile on his face.

"Well then, looks like I got no time to lose. This Arrancar you kept sayin' sounds really fun to fight with. But tell me," Kenpachi stretched up his arm to reduce the cramp he felt. "Who was this Shinigami?"

Rachel and Yachiru looked at Kenpachi. Yachiru looked back at Rachel as she was also wondering about that for a while now.

"His name was," Rachel replied "Tousen Kaname."

* * *

"TOSHIRO!"

The said captain jerked up from his short nap and fell on the graveled pavement below from the wooden bench he was lying at. He saw Karin's foot tapping the pavement with her shoe and coolly get him self back on his foot and looked around the small park they were at.

"Why do you have to yell?" Toshiro muttered as he poked one finger in his left ear and wiggled it, trying to eliminate the buzzing sound of his eardrum from Karin's obnoxious voice.

"Because I wanted to wake you up." Karin flashed out a wide grin as she watched Toshiro's method to recover his hearing.

"You could've just shaken me," he replied, finally gaining back his proper sense in his ear. He looked at his watch and let out a smirk, "It's almost half past five, you sure took a long time in the bathroom. Were you putting up some make-up or did it take you twenty minutes to leak?"

"Hahaha," Karin laughed sarcastically "What's it to you if I spend days in the toilet?"

Toshiro just closed his eyes and let out another smirk before sitting down at the bench again. Karin sat next to him but with a gap in between. She was blushing of what had happened earlier:

_Actually she went to the toilet for five minutes and when she got out, Toshiro, who was waiting for her, was fast asleep on the bench. 'Must be the jetlag' she thought. His white hair glimmers by the sun's rays. One arm was slung over his forehead to shade his face from the sun. His face was calm and relaxed. Instead of waking him up she sat on the pavement, hugging her knees as she rocked back and forth facing the sleeping captain. He looked so…attractive. And Karin loved to look at him when he was sleeping instead of his arrogant character when he was not. But she wished she could see the sea blue eyes of his too through his eyelids. She watched him for fifteen minutes before Toshiro began to mutter something in his sleep. Karin giggled and leaned forward to hear it clearly._

"_Marry..me….Karin" he mumbled, eyes still shut. What the hell was he dreaming off? Karin's eyes were wide and she was dumbfounded by the sleeping captain's sleep talking._

_That's when she felt it. Toshiro's hand was stretched forward and gently held hers. In his sleep, he took her hands and kissed it tenderly at the back before letting it go and turned around. Karin was still somewhere between shocked and happy. That was the third accidental kiss of the day, and it caused her to blush every time, Shaking her head she went closer to his ears and grinned before shouting_

"_TOSHIRO!" _

"Lets go back to the hotel." Toshiro's voice snapped her out of her thoughts.

"What?" Karin looked at Toshiro as she tried to focus back on reality.

"I said lets go back to the hotel…why are you blushing?" Toshiro pointed out to her. Karin touched her cheek and stood up from the bench.

"I am not blushing! It must be the hot weather," Karin corrected Toshiro "And it's an inn, not a hotel."

Toshiro walked away with a small laugh before Karin chased after him.

* * *

Soul Society

Back at the 12th Division backyard, all the camp-out shinigamis were gathering around the big screen TV where Nemu and Akon were sorting out the cables. Ikkaku and Yumichika were inside the building at the control room, sitting down in front of the Interworld Media Converter.

"I can do this!" Ikkaku wiggled as Yumichika held him tightly.

"No you can't!" Yumichika said "Back at Keigo's place you wrecked his computer because you can't find a way to switch it on!"

"That was different!" Ikkaku slapped his friend's hand off his shoulder. "This time its already switched on! All I gotta do is find someway to get the signal from the living world or something." Both 11th Division members looked at Mayuri's giant contraption in his lab. Since he and Yumichika had stayed in the living world, they should have some idea on handling modern technology. And he felt bad when he knocked Mayuri out earlier, so he had to find a way to fix things up. Or at least try to.

"I brought sake!" a cheerful voice was heard at the door of the lab. Ikkaku and Yumichika turned to look and saw a red-faced Rangiku carrying a box filled with fresh sake. She was walking..no, swaying towards the two.

"Break time!" Ikkaku said as he grabbed a bottle from Rangiku before she threw herself into the sofa. Ikkaku snatched the sake back and chugged it all in. "Might as well just lay back for a while."

"This is not beautiful." Yumichika sighed and began walking out of the lab. "I'll go back to the VIP tent and get back on my beauty nap. Don't try to screw around Ikkaku."

"Che," was all Ikkaku said as he sat down in front of the machine. "Hey Rangiku! Pass me another bottle of Sake will ya!"

"Go get it yourself baldy.." Rangiku was obviously drunk as she lay back at the sofa. Her face was red and her speech were mumbled. Fortunately Hitsugaya wasn't around to scold her like he always did.

"Just throw it here!" Ikkaku yelled at the busty vice-captain who was on the sofa few feet away from him. Rangiku moaned something before grabbing a sake bottle from the box on the floor and throw it high up in the air towards Ikkaku's direction.

"Hey watch where you throwing that—" before Ikkaku managed to catch the flying bottle, the cap was opened and the sake poured out of the bottle to the contraption's body, Sparks of electricity sizzled on it before letting out a thick smoke and the monitor went off. Making matters worst, the bottle of sake flew straight towards the monitor and cracked up the screen.

"Oh my, you are screwed big time!" Rangiku said with a hint of laughter behind her voice.

"ME?" Ikkaku yelled back at Rangiku. "You were the one who threw it!"

"You told me too! You should've caught it!"

As they bickered with one another, Uruhara walked in and paused in front of them. He waved his fan to his face as he looked at the ruined Interworld Media Converter with a sake bottle stuck on the broken screen.

"Oh my," Uruhara said, causing Ikkaku and Rangiku to stop their yelling and looked at him, "This will take longer than I thought."

* * *

Living World

Ichigo woke up at the sound his room's telephone. He cursed few words as he drowsily stood up and slowly walked to the table where the telephone was at. It was still ringing loudly and Ichigo's sleepy ears cannot stand its jingle so he pick up the receiver and yelled "HELLO!"

"Ichigo. I'm hungry," a petite voice of his annoying midget said.

"SO?"

"Hey! Why are you shouting?"

"What do you want me to do?"

"I wanna eat! Lets go out for dinner."

"Fine! I'll be at the lobby in fifteen minutes." Ichigo put the receiver back on the telephone. His eyes were still half shut. It was about 6.30pm on the clock and he was still tired. He sat on his bed to put on his shoe before yawning heavily.

"I'll take a nap for ten minutes. Rukia could wait."

Ichigo launched his face down on his pillow and re-enter his own world of slumber.

* * *

She looked at the lobby's clock at Zuma's counter. 7pm. Angrily she stood up and began to pace back and forth of the receptionist counter. Rukia was getting really annoyed. He had been waiting for Ichigo at the lobby so they can go out for dinner. She was really hungry for she skipped lunch earlier. She would go out for dinner herself but she wanted some company. But it looked like the only one in the inn left was her and Ichigo. Karin went out since noon. So did Ishida, Orihime, Chad and Toshiro. Isshin took Yuzu to the store because she wanted to get some sewing materials to patch Kon back, after Rukia literally ripped him into two when she caught him playing her underwears.

"Fifteen minute my ass!" Rukia burst out, causing Zuma to look at her, startled.

"Anything wrong miss?" Zuma politely asked.

"No. I'm just waiting for a friend. We were supposed to go dinner together but he haven't come down yet." Rukia explained as she leaned on Zuma's desk.

"Ah, your boyfriend I assume?" Zuma put up a warm smile on his face.

"What? NO. No. He's just a close friend!" Rukia formed a cross on her chest with both her arms.

"But you like him?"

"What! What! Why do you—"

"Because you are blushing." Zuma pointed out. He was right. Rukia's face was red and she felt transparent. Who was this guy? It's as if he can look through her and see the feelings that she didn't even realize.

"I better go check on him in his room." Rukia quickly walked towards the elevator and pressed the button to the Ichigo's floor. Before the elevator door closed she could hear Zuma shout.

"Tell him you love him miss! Everything will be better!"

* * *

Ichigo rushed down the stairs panting. He looked at his watch. He was late. Rukia was gonna be all over him for this. And he hated messing with her if she's hungry, drawing Chappy in her sketchbook or having her period. He overslept after Rukia called him half an hour ago but he can't blame himself. He was really tired. Arriving at the ground floor, he opened the door and entered the lobby and saw Zuma shouting to the elevator saying "Tell him you love him miss! Everything will be better!".

Ignoring him he looked around the lobby. No sign of the midget. He stepped outside the entrance and looked around if she was at the inn's garden. Nada. He went back inside and went to Zuma who was on the phone. Zuma give out a signal with his finger to ask Ichigo to wait until he was done. Ichigo nodded and leaned on the counter. The lobby was empty. Just like his room. It's like everyone went out when he was sleeping.

"You look tired sir." Zuma finally addressed him after he was done on the phone.

"Yeah, I ran down the stairs because someone was using the elevator." Ichigo said. He was still panting a little after running all the way down from the fourth floor. "You should get another elevator in here man."

"Ah yes, most people told us to do so. But as usual, our budget doesn't allow that." Zuma responded with a smile. He was stacking up some papers on his desk. "How may I help you sir? You looked like you were looking for someone."

"Well, yeah. Actually I was suppose to meet a friend here fifteen minutes ago. We were suppose to go out dinner together." Ichigo asked as he wiped his sweat of his forehead with a tissue from the counter.

Zuma smiled at the irony that was happening in front of him and chuckled. "Ah I see. Your girlfriend, I assume?"

"NO! Not even close!" Ichigo quickly corrected him. Him with the midget? His heart went wild at the idea. "We are just close friends."

"But you like her?"

"What! Why do you—"

"Because you are blushing."

Zuma was really enjoying this. Is not everyday you can see this type of odd couple around the dull inn. And seeing the stunned face of the carrot top, he sat back on his chair before saying. "I saw her entering the elevator a while ago. I think she may be on the way to your room to call you."

"Thanks Zuma." Ichigo quickly rushed up to the staircase door and ran up the stairs, silently thanking god he didn't have to face more of Zuma's comment. That guy sure is something. It's as if he can look through him and see the feelings that he didn't even realize. On the way up he can still hear Zuma shout.

"Tell him you love him sir! Everything will be better!"

Zuma watched at the running Ichigo that disappeared from his sight as he ran up the stairs. He laughed by himself in a low tone to avoid any accusation of him being a mad man. Zuma then began to tilt his head quizzically.

"Why didn't he use the elevator?"

* * *

**OMG! THANK GOD THAT WAS DONE WITH.**

**I hope the outcome is okay.**

**So review ayte so I can see my mistake.**

**Well there you have it, a little IchiRuki hint. And more HitsuKArin moment (Soory to HitsuHina fans)**

**I have to put the other plot on the next chapter because its too long.**

**The Rachel Dumitre story, it might sound ridiculous and does not correspond to the bleach world a little. But I tried my best to make sense out of it.**

**From the looks of it, I had failed to finish the story before the WORLD CUP FINALS. Bummer! **

***sits in corner sulking***

**Who wants to kill Paul the squid? HAHAAH Kiddin!**

**Review!**

**=B

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**

***Kon flies across the screen***

**SHINIGAMI WORLD CUP FEVER!

* * *

**

Renji was using Jinta's computer, chuckling by himself. He was typing something down in Facebook until Jinta slid his room door open.

"What are you doing here! Get out of my room!" Jinta yelled at him.

"Relax moron. I was just checking my Facebook account," explained Renji as he stood up and ruffled Jinta's hair before exiting the room, laughing.

"Stupid shit." Jinta sat on the chair and began to open up his Google Chrome. "I wanna see if Yuzu replied my wall yet. "

When he opened up his Facebook's page, he realized that it was still log in with his account. "Weird? I thought Renji used my computer to go Facebook."

Ignoring the fact, he clicked on the notification taskbar and smiled heavily when she saw a notification that said:

Yuzu Kurosaki had written something on your wall.

Jinta clicked the link that led to his profile. He looked at what Yuzu said to him.

OMG Jinta. Nice profile picture. You have a cute little thing back there. =P

Jinta was confused. My profile picture? What does he mean? What cute little thing? He shifted his glance slowly to the top left corner of his profile and began to scream loudly. His profile picture was a picture of him taking a shower, showing his bare butt under the sprinkling water. Jinta was horrified. No, worse than that. He was going berserk, insane and began to pull his hair! Who the fuck did this!

He shifted his glance again to read his status and it read.

This Facebook account was raped by Renji! Frape Phail!

"RENJI!"

**Info: Facebook rape (or Frape) is when someone else hack into your account and write something in your status, changed ypur profile picture and do some other shit to humiliate you. Similar to hacking. See Wikipedia for more info.**


	6. Half Time

**BLEACH: World Cup Fever

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**

**Thanks to the reviewers! You know who you are.**

**My loyal followers.**

**PEACE!**

**And congrats to Spain for the World Cup winner.**

**HAHAHAHAHAHHA**

**I was supporting Neds though. LOL

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**

**DISCLAIMER****: I do not own Bleach or the World Cup.

* * *

**

**CHAPTER 6**

**Half Time**

Living World

Nightfall began to cast upon Johannesburg. The lively streets were lit up in neon lights wrapped around the street lights, walls, signboards and the walls. Everyone was celebrating after Germany had defeated Portugal in the Third Place play-off. There were people in the bars and on the streets all happily talking about the outstanding game that had just ended while the Portugal supporters were drinking their defeat down their gullet.

However among the happy faces, three put up an anxious and worried expression as they run through the street. They entered a MacDonald restaurant where they just had their dinner half an hour ago.

"It's not here." Chad said as he looked at the table they sat before.

"Oh no..it's all my fault." Orihime's voice trailed away as he burst out into light sobs. Ishida took no hesitant to comfort his crying friend.

"It's not your fault Inoue-kun," Ishida attempts to reassured Orihime. "Everyone makes mistakes once in a while. Besides, your bag could still be around here somewhere. I'll go ask the manager at the counter."

Ishida left towards the counter as Chad searched thoroughly under table and behind the chairs. Orihime sat down on the closest chair she could find as she wiped her tears.

'How could I forget my bag here? I don't mind what's in it but the fact that Ishida-kun and Sado-kun's wallet was in it bothers me.' She thought in her head, feeling miserable every second. Earlier she was asked to keep the boys wallets because they had to empty their pockets to find a MacDonald coupon they had. But they let Orihime keep it with her in her hand bag.

Orihime felt a large hand patted her shoulder. She looked up and saw Chad with a small smile on his face in order to comfort her. Ishida then walked back towards the group with a frowning look on his face.

"Nothing huh?" Chad said. Ishida shook his head heavily and Orihime let out tears again.

"The cashier said she didn't see any bag on our table. But she did say that after us, a group of local teens were there to have their dinner. So they probably took it." Ishida explain.

"If we are lucky, they may take it to the police station." Said Chad

"Probably," Ishida pushed up his glasses, "we can go to the nearest police booth to ask. Let's just hope the teens weren't some delinquents." Chad nodded.

"Should we call the others, in case they are worried about us?" Orihime asked Ishida. She had stopped crying and decided to stay strong like the rest of the group.

"My phone won't work. I can't make calls in foreign country with my network." Ishida answered her.

"Mine was still charging in the room." Chad added.

"Oh," Orihime said sadly. Her phone was in her bag, which was currently what they were looking for.

"We're quite far from our inn. We can't use a cab because all our money is in the bag. We could try and walk back but we might get lost, and not everyone here understands Japanese or English to ask for directions. So our best choice now is to look for a police booth and ask about the bag. Everyone agree?" Ishida said like a commander of an attacking army. Chad and Orihime nodded to his command and then the three of them ran out of the restaurant in search for their bag.

* * *

Hueco Mundo

"_You're to slow." Tousen said at the little girl whose arm was wounded by a light scratch inflicted by his zanpakutou. "Remember, you do not see with your eyes, but with your heart."_

"_That doesn't make sense ." Rachel said weakly as she put a pressure on her wounded arm while holding her own zanpakutou. She was training with Tousen again and he had just wounded her in the last slash because she didn't shunpo in time. _

"_You can see better when you don't see at all. Close your eyes and hear the sound around you. Listen to the footsteps of your opponents as he moved among the dirt on the ground. Listen to their breath and heartbeats as they charge you. Before you realized it, you can actually see your opponent's movement in your head far more clearly than they could see you." Rachel nodded lazily as Tousen put his zanpakutou back in his sheath and walked towards Rachel. He put up his palm to her wound and began healing it. _

"_Teach me that one!" Rachel chirped happily as she saw her wound miraculously healed by the light emitted from the shingami's hand. Tousen just smiled at her reaction._

"_Patience," Tousen said when he was done, "That was a kido. I'll teach you that when your fighting skill is impressive enough."_

"_But I've been training my sword skill for almost ten months now. Maybe something new would boost my ability up or something," Rachel sulked as she crossed her arm and pouted at Tousen. Tousen chuckled and ruffled her hair and said, "Defeat me in a battle then I'll teach you."_

"_Alright then," Rachel put up her zanpakuto in a fighting stance, "Lets try again, This time I'll beat you for sure ."_

"Ahhhhh~"

Tousen felt a pull on his coat which put him back to reality. He was back in the world of pure darkness that had engulfed him for years. The flashback he just had was getting more frequent lately. He can still remember the plain savannah grassland where he and the little girl used to train, back when he could still see. The smell of the air, the sound of the animals, the sound of her laughter. All were still clear in his mind as he walked down the nostalgic road of his past. He had no choice but to leave back then. He was on a mission. And the mission was completed so he had no reason to stay in Africa much longer. At least that was what he told himself for the past century.

"Ahhhh~" another pull on his caot. Tousen smiled at a small Arrancar that was walking slowly behind him with his hands holding Tousen's coat. He was walking down the hallway from the Barragan's chamber where he won few games of Chess and one game Battleship, which ended up with Barragan throwing the board game out the window. Talk about sore loser.

"Wonderweiss," Tousen said, "what's wrong?"

"Ahh~" responded Wonderweiss, as usual. He was pointing to the running pink-haired Espada heading towards the Media Chamber down the hallway.

"What's the matter?" Tousen asked.

"There's a video call from Ulquiorra and Grimmjow back in the living world." Szayel said quickly as he ran pass him. "Aizen-sama asked me to check their mission status."

Tousen simply shrugged when he heard the Media Chamber's door slam shut. He ruffled Wonderweiss's hair and continued his stroll down the hall.

* * *

The Media Chamber was quite similar to Seiretei's Research And Technology Department of the Twelfth Division. There was a large computer situated at the end of the wall facing the entrance door. Mainframes with cables dangling from sockets towards the floor flooded the left side of the room. Other than that, few chairs were arranged in a cinema-like manner, all facing a large projection screen that can be pulled down in front of the computer. The room was usually used when Aizen needed to show any media presentation to his Arrancars or when Gin was doing his Arrancar Encyclopedia Segment after each episode.

Szayel typed frantically on the keyboard and the monitor lit up, displaying the faces of the two infamous Espadas.

"Status report now. Did you plant the transmitter?" Szayel quickly asked the two.

"Relax nerd," Grimmjow responded as he put up his grin, "A simple hello would be really nice."

"Shut up thrash." Ulquiorra pushed Grimmjow out of the screen. "We're having a situation."

"Ulquiorra? Is that you?" Szayel said as he tried to hold himself from laughing seeing Ulquiorra without his Espada uniform and the ridiculous hollow helmet he always wear. "You look so elmo in your human form. I guess my pills worked like a charm. Genius."

"The proper term is emo, Einstein." Grimmjow somehow managed to get back into the screen. "We do not have much time, it's already nightfall here and we have a big problem."

"What?" Szayel asked.

"Ulquiorra lost the transmitte—"

Before Grimmjow could finish up, a cero blast from Ulquiorra blew him again out of the screen. Ulquiorra cleared his throat. "Grimmjow got mugged by a local pickpocket and the transmitter was stolen."

"WHAT? You two are so useless. If Aizen-sama heard of this you'll be stripped off your Espada position for sure."

"Don't you have any spare? Create a new one."

"That'll take time. No matter how smart I am, I won't be able to finish making a new one before tomorrow night."

"Is there a way for us to find the transmitter without thrashing the city out?" Grimmjow again entered the screen. His shirt was slightly ripped and burned from the last cero blast.

"Well, I did put a tracker in the device." Szayel said as he swayed his pink bangs from his face "In case you two screw up."

"Just tell us where it is thrash." Ulquiorra said, causing Szayel to grunt softly.

"I'll send you the GPS signal for the transmitter to your cell phone." Szayel types few numbers to a monitor screen.

"You have a cell phone?" Grimmjow grabbed Ulquiorra's shirt annoyed. "Why don't I have one?"

"Aizen-sama gave me a cell phone everytime I have a mission to the living world so I could contact Hueco Mundo without much delay." Ulquiorra slapped Grimmjow's hand off and continued, "The reason you do not have one because we ran out of stock."

Szayel tapped the 'Enter' button on the keyboard. "There, the GPS signal is sent to your phone so you can detect its coordinates." He looked up on the screen and saw Grimmjow trying to strangle his partner but was stopped by another cero.

"I will get this done as fast as possible." Ulquiorra stated.

"You better be or Aizen-sama wi—" The screen blacked out. Szayel narrowed his eyes and pushed up his glasses. "That moron hung up on me."

* * *

Living World

The elevator dinged, and its door slid open. Rukia stepped out and stomped down the fourth floor hallway. Her stomach growled badly. She's hungry and angry. And the only one she can blame it on was her carrot top friend who ditched her on dinner. Not to mention what Zuma said earlier about her relationship with Ichigo. Him as her boyfriend? Ridiculous! She admitted Ichigo was attractive in every way; his face, his body, his smell and his cocky attitude that gave birth to that never ending scowl of his. But Rukia never put much thought in what she really felt about him. Now, she could not stop thinking about it.

Reaching Ichigo's door, her hand raised up high in the air as she prepared to knock on it. "ICHIGO—" Her yell ceased upon seeing the door unlocked and was not closed properly. 'Baka,' thought Rukia, 'he should know better how dangerous it is if he left his door unlocked like this'.

She pushed the door gently and popped her head to survey Ichigo's room. A broken lamp was on the floor. Scattered also on the carpet was pieces of ceramic vases and few pair of used socks. Luggage bags were on an empty bed that was nearest to the door. Above one bad was posted an A4 picture of Masaki, similar to the one in the living room back home. Rukia had no doubt that this was definitely Isshin's bed. The last bed near the wall was a mess. The blanket was folded and half of it was dangled on the floor. The pillow was crumpled and the mattress was crooked. This was definitely Ichigo's bed. But where is Ichigo?

She looked in the bathroom only to find it empty. Just then, her stomach began to rumble. Her hunger was killing her. She needed to eat something. Anything. Rukia's violet eyes scanned the messy room intensely before laying their gaze on a small white fridge under the television cabinet. 'There should be some food in there,' she thought as she rushed towards it like a burglar towards a safe. She grabbed the handle of the refridgerator's door and pulled it to open. Her eyes widened of what she saw, Maltesers. Kit Kat. Oreo, Cadbury. Hershey. Toblerone. Ferrero Roche. Her mouth was now as wide as her eyes, and drools of saliva began leaking out the side of her lips. She was not a fan of chocolates. But who could resist when there are bars and bars of branded chocolate were right in front of you? Certainly not Rukia. She could not even explain how the fridge was filled with them. The inn did not look like one of those that provides branded snacks in the fridge; at least not this many. The only reason she could think of was either Ichigo had a serious case of sweet tooth she had no idea about or Isshin was going to have a severe case of diabetes coming to in.

Giving no more thought on the matter, she began unwrapping the Kit Kat wrappers and took a bite from the chocolate covered wafer. Her eyes closed in sensation as her taste bud was drowned in such a heavenly taste. The chocolate caused her throat to be sticky so she raided the fridge for something to drink to clear her throat. She ruffled among the vast number of chocolates and found few soda cans of brand she never seen before. Ignoring that thought, she opened the can and took one large gulp of the drink before choking. The soda tasted weird, but she liked it. So she drink it more and alternatively eating as much chocolate she could in between. Screw dinner. Screw Ichigo. She was in her own heaven.

* * *

Back at the fourth floor hallway, the emergency door flew opened and a panting Ichigo fall to the floor on his knees. Right now in his mind, all he can think about was cursing gravity. Science was yet to be proven wrong as it did took him longer to run up the stairs then running down; and far more exhausting. He should've taken the elevator up. He would have if Zuma had not distracted him with his silly comments. The midget as his girlfrind? Yeah right! He admit Rukia was beautiful in her own way; her slender creamed legs, bright moonlit skin, large captivating eyes and perfect curves with adequate chest size. But Ichigo never put much thought in what he really felt about her. Now, he could not stop thinking about it.

Recovering his breath, Ichigo walked towards his room and found his door half open. 'I must have been in a real hurry that I didn't lock it. I bet Rukia just sneaked inside looking for me.' Ichigo thought as he gently pushed the door open and peeked through. He knew Rukia was mad at him for being late to their little dinner. Knowing what the petite creature could do to him when she was just herself, he did not want to picture out the things she would do to him when she's hungry and mad. So Ichigo carefully scanned his room for any signs of Rukia. "Rukia? You in here?" he said. No sign of respond. His room was messy as it was when he left it. Broken vases on the floor. His socks were all over the place, chocolate wrappers and empty can were around his be— wait what the hell? As far as he can recall he did not had any snack when he left or having some barbaric tea party. He rushed in and found the fridge opened and empty. The chocolates were gone. HIS chocolates were gone. The chocolates he was planning to eat when he watch the final game tomorrow was gone. And he knew who the perpetrator was.

"RUKIA!" Ichigo yelled hoping to hear a respond from the thief.

"Ichigo!" the closet next to the door was opened. Rukia walked out of it. "You ditch me…"

"What happened to you? And what were you doing in the closet?" Ichigo asked sounding mad at first but slowly became concerned as he saw Rukia walking towards him in a swaying manner. Her lips were smudged with chocolate and her face was red. Her speech was slurred as she said something that Ichigo could not catch. On her left hand was a halfway eaten Cookies and Cream Hersey Chocolate bar, one of his favorites. His question was answered when he saw a can of Heineken Beer on her right hand, just like the ones that were scattered around the carpet.

"This closet is…bigger than yours…" Rukia slurry speech reached Ichigo. Before he could came up with any respond Rukia suddenly planted her foot on his face and began hopping around the room, laughing.

"What the eff!" Ichigo said as he hold his bleeding nose.

"I'm Chappy! I'm Chappy!" Rukia chirped happily as she hopped around Ichigo. What he observed had just strengthened his earlier conclusion. Rukia was drunk. And high on sugar.

"OI! Midget!" Ichigo grabbed hold of her shoulder as she took another gulp of the beer. Ichigo shooked her hard to get her back to her senses but received a spitted beer on the face instead.

"That's it!" Ichigo angrily yelled as he snatched the beer can from Rukia's hand and threw it out the nearest window in the room. Rukia's drunk behavior began to annoy him. He saw her drank Sake before and maintained sober. Maybe beer was another whole new level for her.

"My soda!" Rukia hopped towards the window and watched as the can of 'soda' plopped down the front yard four story below.

"That is NOT soda!" Ichigo pulled Rukia away from the window before she hopped out of it, "That was dad's beer!" He cursed his dad for bringing it with him in the trip.

Rukia seemed to be ignoring what Ichigo just said as she began to took a bite out of the chocolate on her other hand. Annoyed, Ichigo snatched it too, infuriating Rukia. "And this was MY chocolate!"

"HEY!" Rukia cried as she tried to punch Ichigo but he hold her away with one hand. "Give Chappy back her chocolate!"

"NO!" he rolled his eyes when he realized she was hallucinating herself as the high-on-marijuana rabbit.

"Chappy is hungry!"

"Well you can forget about me taking you out for dinner! I am NOT taking a drunk midget out!"

"Chappy wants chocolate!"

"Well 'Chappy' can say bye bye to this chocolate!" Ichigo grinned as he took a large bite of the remaining Hershey. The white chocolate with bits of cookies melted in his mouth. Part of him loved this chocolate because Rukia took a bite from the same one.

"NO! CHOCOLATE!" Before Ichigo could finish swallowing the chocolate, Rukia jumped on him and pushed them both to the floor. She then pressed her lips to Ichigo's and her tongue begs for an entrance. Out of reflex, his mouth opened up and he felt Rukia's tongue licking the un-swallowed chocolate from his teeth, tongue and inner cheek; practically eating them. Ichigo's tongue was moving involuntary as it was doing the same to Rukia's. She tasted like chocolates….and a whole lot of beer. Their little 'chocolate tongue dance' lasted at least a minute before Rukia sat up on Ichigo's lap and raised her hand.

"Chocolate tasted good…." Rukia said before she plopped back to Ichigo's chest and began to snore timidly. Ichigo lied still as he felt Rukia's breathing chest on his. His face was red just like Rukia, only he could not tell if hers was due to what just happened or the alcohol. This was not how he imagined his first kiss with Rukia would be. Yes, he had imagined kissing Rukia. Only the surrounding was more romantic; like the school rooftop during sunset or at a plain green field facing Karakura Town, and Rukia was….well, not drunk.

"I hope she doesn't remember any of this in the morning." Ichigo said, looking down at the sleeping drunken midget on his chest. Ichigo felt comfortable, completed and special when Rukia was on him. He put one hand below his head to act as a pillow while the other arm was holding Rukia gently to his chest.. This would be an awkward position for them if anyone would see it. But he did not care. What were the chances that anyone would barged in the room and—

"SOOONNN! DADDY'S BACK…OH?" Isshin burst into the room with a plastic bag of 'Zulu Cuisine' take-out and paused as he looked at he mess the room was in and saw the position his son was in with Rukia.

"ICHIGO!" Isshin dropped the plastic bag and jumped happily. "YOU MADE ME SOME GRANDCHILDREN! And I see you two prefer to do it with the help of alcohol!"

Later that night, Isshin had a hard time removing the pieces shattered glass of the bathroom mirror from his face.

* * *

Soul Society

Uruhara Kisuke was walking around the building that he was the founder of; The Research and Technology Department, a big contribution that he had given for the welfare of Soul Society. He reached the room that was used to be a Twelfth Division Capatain sleeping quarter, which he turned into a lab. He then went to Hiyori's old bedroom, which now belongs to Nemu. Uruhara smiled as he walked down the memory lane during the time when Hiyori's sandal would meet his nose as a regular basis, Shinji would came by once in a while giving him advice on how to handle a squad and when he was still respected as a captain. That was until Aizen began his evil scheme and turned his friends to what he now know as Vizard and caused his banishment from Soul Society. Uruhara smiled lightly at the events, for what seemed to be a bad situation at that time had led him to a greater life; Owning a candy store, meeting Ichigo and his friends and falling in love…with his hat.

Uruhara patted the brim of his hat at the thought. Now he was reaching the main laboratory of Mayuri's lab. He looked at the Interworld Media Converter that was damaged by Ikkaku earlier. He's been fixing it until nightfall. The only things left to do was to get some spare parts of some broken components from his shop back in the living world, which he would ask someone to get in the morning for right now he was tired. Ikkaku was on the couch, snoring heavily. He had helped Uruhara as much as he could earlier so right now the blonde ex-captain let him rest.

He proceeded to the nearest window to look at the backyard, which was currently in a mess. It was raining slightly so the twelfth squad members were struggling to cover the big screen TV with a large clothes. The VIP tent in the middle was filled with those who wished to shelter themselves from the rain, only to be kicked out by a drunk Matsumoto for taking her personal space. On one corner, some shinigamis were still playing a game of soccer despote the wet ground. In front of the building's entrance stood the Secret Corps, guarding the area from the restless shinigamis who wanted to kill Ikkaku for ruining their chance to watch the World Cup…which is another reason why he let Ikkaku sleep inside. Then, he smiled when he sensed the presence of someone who he had known for years entering the lab.

"My, my, what had I done to receive your presence here Soi Fon?" Uruhara said in glee, waving his fan as he curtsied playfully. Soi Fon mainatned her stoic face as she stood at the door, hands behind her back.

"Captain Commander Yamamoto told me to check on you." Soi Fon replied.

Uruhara grinned, "Well, it's almost done. I've fixed the machine. All I need now was to get some spare parts from the living world. I'd get Renji or Tessai deliver them for me in the morning, since it's kinda late already. And besides," Uruhara faked a yawn, "I'm kinda sleepy right now."

"Very well then. I shall deliver your report. Good night." Soi Fon said before walking out of the room.

"Wait, Soi Fon." Uruhara addressed her before he loses sight of the Second Division Captain. Soi Fon stopped and turned her head.

"What?"

"Dine with me."

"What?" Soi Fon almost coughed. This time the same question was said with a disbelief tone.

"Have dinner with me." Uruhara rephrased. "I'm quite hungry right now and I wish to have a company. Someone to talk to. I don't think Ikkaku-san would like to talk in his condition."

Soi Fon looked at the said sleeping Shinigami on the couch before returning her glance to the blonde man. "No. I have plans. I need to help my squad maintaining the riot at the yard."

"Come on Soi Fon," Uruhara walked towards her. "Have a break once in a while. Lets just have a nice dinner together and talk." He put one hand on her shoulder only to receive a jab on the face by the Secret Corp Captain.

"Do not touch me!" Soi Fon said to the fallen Uruhara on the floor. "Why would I dine with a bum like you?"

Uruhara rubbed his swollen nose and smiled, annoying Soi Fon, "because you came here to see if _this bum_ was hungry or not." Soi Fon blushed at the truth in the man's statement. Damn it, was she so transparent?

"No…I told you. I came here because Captain Commander Yamamoto asked me to check on your job."

"But oddly, he already sent Ukitake to check on me ten minutes ago." Uruhara now pretended to act confuse as he covered his smile with his fan. Soi Fon struggled to find a respond to free herself from Uruhrara's statement, but failed.

"Besides, I saw the pack of rice ball you were holding behind your back earlier. The ones I assumed you got for me?" Uruhara broke her silence.

True enough, Soi Fon was holding a pack of rice balls behind her back. She cursed herself for being so obvious in her visit. She could have given Uruhara some logical excuses, but somehow she couldn't. Uruhara saw right through her.

"Come on. I know a nice place where we could eat the rice balls together." Uruhara handed out his hand. Soi Fon was still speechless and motionless. So Uruhara grabbed her hand and led her out of the room. Soi Fon was about to give him another punch but the sensation of his hands on hers stopped her. His touch was gentle, mature and comforting. And deep inside her arrogant and mean shell, she wished it never ends.

* * *

**OOOHH!**

**Is this a UruharaxSoiFon pairing?**

**Wait and find out WHAHAHAHAH! The pairing was random cause I wrote this with what ever idea that came in my head.**

**Hows that scene of IchiRuki? LOL I hope its not over the top or anything.**

**And I am sorry if there are OOCs.**

**You can point them out to me if you want. But if their OOc is meant for the plot, I can't help it. xD**

**(Im having exams for the next 3 weeks so hiatus would be expected. I shall continue this story after that hopefully but I swear this will not left incompleted)**

**Review!

* * *

**

**Arrancar Encyclopedia…**

**Gin**: Today we are gonna talk about the Media Chamber

_(screen goes on showing video of Media chamber as Gin pointed his cane on it)_

The Media Chamber is a room in Las Noches with the latest Technology you can find in the human world, courtesy of Tousen and Szayel. We have few computers, WiFi access, surround sound DVD and large flat screen plasma TV. This is exactly the room where I have my segments with—what the hell?

_(All Espadas come in the room and gather themselves in front of Gin)_

**-Gin:** What are you all doing here?

**-Nnoitra:** We're here to watch the Final Soccer Game on TV you fox-head.

**-Yammy:** YEAH! So move aside!

_(Yammy carries Gin away from screen)_

**-Gin**: Let me go! HEY!

**-Starkk:** I'm taking the front seat.

**-Nnoitra:** HEY! THAT"S MY SEAT!

**-Starkk:** Not anymore.

**-Gin:** HEY! THIS IS MY AIRTIME!

**All Espadas**: Shhhhhhhhhhhh!

(_Yammy throws Gin out of the room and locked the door)_

_(Gin frantically knocks the door)_

_(Long silence as the Espadas watches a blank screen on the TV)_

**-Harribel**: Did Aizen-sama say the game would be tonight…or tomorrow night?

**-Gin:** (_cries outside the room_) MY AIRTIME!


	7. Substitutions

**BLEACH: World Cup Fever

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**

**This chapter is dedicated to ****BcSaturdai**** for inspiring me to write the**

**Chapter and ignore my current exams.**

**HAHAHAHAHA!**

**You are awesome!**

**This are the awesome peoples from last chapter. Thanks for reviewing.**

**-BleachedFighter**

**-101FallingRock**

**-bcsaturdai**

**-Sayo-chan64**

**-Senna-taicho-kun**

**-Miss Bunnie Chan **

**Especially the loyal ones who likes my first weird IchiRuki scene earlier.

* * *

**

**DISCLAIMER****: I do not own Bleach or the World Cup.

* * *

**

**CHAPTER 7**

**Substitutions

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**

Living World

Rachel leaned on the Sacred Pole as she loosed her thoughts at the night star above. She had just finished walking around the abandoned village to patrol for any hollows. This had been her usual routine at night for the past half decade.

Today was a day of hope for Rachel. Another shinigami had arrived in the village after the death of Tousen. Maybe finally she and the other children can move on to their deserved afterlife instead of trapped here and attached to the cursed pole. Maybe finally that damn Arrancar would die. Maybe finally, she would be able to see Soul Society.

**Rachel..**

"Yes Aarde?" Rachel responded. Aarde Baas was her Zanpakutou. Discovering her Zanpakutou was the last lesson she had with Tousen before he went to his death hunting down the Arrancar.

**The shinigami is very strong. I can sense intense spiritual pressure.**

"Yes I can sense it too. killed a lot of hollows today without releasing his zanpakutou."

**I'm not just talking about him. The kid's reiatsu was almost equal to Zaraki**

"Is that so?"

**Yes Rachel**

A short silence occurred between Rachel and her zanpakutou. "Um, Aarde.."

**Yes?**

"We can see Soul Society soon."

**I know. I cannot wait. I was dying to see how it looks like.**

"Me too. Lets hope can end this curse once and for all."

**Lets.**

"Ra-chan!"

Yachiru's voice interrupted Rachel's conversation. She was running towards her from the main hut where Kenpachi was trying his best baby-sitting the other children as they played with his bells on his hair after being persuaded by his vice-captain.

"Ken-chan said he will search for the Arrancar tomorrow." Yachiru said. Her eyes brighten up in glee as she said it.

"That's great!" replied Rachel. Yachiru then sat down next to her and she too gazed at the stars.

"Do you miss Tousen-chan?" asked Yachiru. When Rachel told her and Kenpachi earlier, none knew what to respond at the sound of the man from Soul Society's most wanted list.

"I do. I blamed myself for his death. If he didn't try to save my village, he would still be alive." Rachel answered, her eyes were now sad, "He was a great teacher. He guided me and the rest of the villages and encouraged us to survive until we can reach Soul Society. He promised to bring us to Soul Society. He promised to bring me…"

Rachel then began to cry. Yachiru was in her serious mood so she did not act like a sugar high rascal. Instead she acted like a friend, a comforting friend. Hearing Rachel's story, all she could offer was holding her hand to provide comfort. Seeing how highly she think of Tousen, she cannot bear to tell her that he was still alive (and blind for the fact) and had betrayed Soul Society to mingle with Arrancars, the species that 'killed' him. So she decided to let Rachel keep Tousen memory as it was to her.

"What is Soul Society like?" asked Rachel. She ceased from her depressing memory and decided to change the topic.

"Its fun!" Yachiru began to act like her old self as she waved her hand in excitement in the air. "There are a lot of places to play with. We can go to Rukongai where the normal souls lived or we can run around Seiretei, the places where Shinigamis like you and me stay! And there are many fun people you should meet to! There's Sick-chan who would give us candy everyday, Bya-chan who would play hide and seek with us in his large house. There are also Baldy-chan and Feather-chan who will play with us!"

"It sounds great!" Rachel chirped happily. "I wish to be there soon."

"You will," Yachiru said as she put a hand on Rachel's shoulder. "Me and Ken-chan will bring you and the other. We promise."

"I hope would be strong enough to kill the Arancar.." Rachel said

"You do not trust me little kid?" a voice beamed behind the two girls. Both of them turned around and saw Kenpachi stood up and smiling. His hair was a mess because the some of the bells that tied his hair was torn off, causing Yachiru and Rachel to laugh.

"You two should get some sleep. Tomorrow maybe a busy day for us." Kenpachi said

"Okay," Rachel stood up and walked in the hut with Yachiru following closely behind.

"Where you going Ken-Chan?" Yachiru yelled seeing Kenpachi walking into the dark shadows between the burnt down huts.

"I'm finding a place to pee."

* * *

Soul Society

"Here we are!"

Soi Fon's eyes widened. She never had seen a place so beautiful before. She was never a fan of beautiful scenery or nature but this place where Uruhara had taken her was just astoundingly breathe-taking. She never knew Soul Society had a place so magnificent as this. Not in Rukongai at least.

Surrounding them were varieties of trees decorated with white flowers with a glimpse of pink. The soft wind swayed their branches softly like commoners greeting their king. The grass was soft and dark green with adequate length enough to reach the ankle. There were dandelions scattered throughout the plain and its seeds flew under the winds command. Across the field was a small waterfall that leads to a large lake in the center of the plain. The gleaming moonlight gave the surface a bright shiny sparkle giving an impression of diamonds scattering at the bottom of the lake. In the center of the lake was a large flat stone. And on that stone was a tall tree with an old-looking tree house on its branch.

**This is a very nice place to have your first date Soi Fon!**

"This is not a date Suzumebachi," Soi Fon retorted to her zanpakutou

**Come on, moonlight, dinner! Connect the dots**

"We are having a friendly dinner that's all"

**That's a lie and you know it! Come on you old hag. How long you gonna keep your feelings like this? This is your chance! You need a boyfriend, fast!**

"I am not an old hag you idiot. I have no feelings for that lazy ass bum."

**Cranky are we? More the reason you need a boyfriend!**

"I am ignoring you."

**Ohh and you guys are going to have a date on a tree!**

"Ignoring you"

**Soi Fon and Kisuke, sitting on a tree. F-U-C-K-I—**

"Suzumebachi!"

"Earth to Soi Fon. Earth to Soi Fon."

Uruhara waved his hand in front of Soi Fon's dazzling gazed immediately stopped her inner world spat.

"Sorry, what?" said Soi Fon trying to focus back on reality.

"I said you dropped our dinner," said Uruhara.

Soi Fon looked at the grassy ground below her. He was right. Their rice balls were on the plain grass. She must have dropped it during her argument with her stupid little zanpakutou. She knelt down and attempted to pick them up but Uruhara hold her shoulder.

"Let it be. We can eat something else inside the tree house," he said

"That's your tree house?" asked Soi Fon standing back up.

"Yes mine," Uruhara tilted his hat to get a clearer view of the said house "and Yoruichi's and Tessai's"

"Yoruichi-sama?" Soi Fon became excited as usual at the mention of her idol.

"Yes. Yoruichi-sama," Uruhara chuckled, "We build it together when we were kids to remind us of our friendship because this was the place where we three first met."

Soi Fon stared at Uruhara as he spoke. The annoying smile on his face had shifted to a smile of comfort and love, and instead of making her pissed like the first, this smile actually caused her heart to melt and throb.

"Back then Tessai and I were eating the food we stole from Rukongai," Uruhara continued, "This was the place we always came to lay back and rest. There is something about this place that made us feel fresh. Tessai, being the best in sensing spiritual stuff at the time discovered that the whole plain was protected by a natural kido barrier that equalized all reiatsu in its domain. In other words, in here, we are just normal level soul without Shinigami attributes."

Soi Fon nodded plainly as she expected Uruhara to continue.

"Yoruichi, now that was a funny tale. Tessai and I were chasing a cat that had raided through our bag pack. It ran to the top of that water fall and began to jump off into the lake. And thanks to the kido barrier, she was out of her cat form and turned into a girl..a nude girl."

Uruhara looked at Soi Fon who was currently red all over her face.

"I got worried if she was drowning from the fall so I jumped after her and I was the one ending up drowning cause I hit my head on a rock. And Yoruichi was the one who saved me. After the incident we introduced ourselves. Turns out she was part of the noble clan of Shihoin who prefer to be outdoors and cause trouble. After years of meeting up here the three of us decided to build a tree house where we can keep all the food we 'gather' and served as a place to just cut back from the world and be with each other."

Uruhara walked towards the lake and began dipping his leg as he began to walk across to reach the tree house. He turned around and saw Soi Fon still standing still at the bank of the lake. "Are you coming or not?"

"Yeah, yeah." Soi Fon got in her Shunpo stance and began to jump towards the lake…only to fall down and cause large splash on the water. The lake was cold and she began to shiver as she sat up. Half of her was sitting down in the water while the other half was soaked and staring at the laughing Uruhara.

"I told you. We cannot use any Shinigami attributes here," Uruhara approached her and handed his hand to carry her back up, "That includes Shunpo my dear Soi Fon."

Soi Fon was now flushed with embarrassment, or was it because Uruhara was pulling her hand. Why does his touch comfort her so much? She knew the answer but her ego did not allow her to submit to it. So out of that same ego she pulled her hand away from Uruhara's hand.

"I can get myself up, thank you," Soi Fon yelled frantically.

"No need to be so feisty about it." Uruhara said with a light laugh and continued his walk to the flat stone with Soi Fon not far behind. Why did she say that so harshly? Why did she feel guilty? She was always harsh with everyone. Even with Uruhara. But now, it actually felt…..bad.

**Soi Fon and Kisuke, sitting on a tree… **

"Shut the fuck up!"

* * *

Hueco Mundo

Aizen and Gin was in the Espada meeting room, staring outside towards the vast desert plain through the large hole in the wall made by the Nel-and-her-two-fraccions-escaped-through-the-wall-by-a-large-worm-hollow situation earlier. Gin was complaining about how he hardly get any airtime for his Arrancar Encyclopedia segments lately to Aizen, who just chose to listen and smile at his comrade's antiques.

A few minutes of silence followed up after that as the two ex-captain watched the dull scenery in front of them.

"Aizen," Gin said, "You do notice that Tousen's been acting a little off lately, don't ya?"

Aizen looked at Gin before saying, "Yes. I do."

"He began to act so strangely ever since you sent Grimmjow and Ulquiorra to South Africa. Why is that?"

"Let's just say he's having a blast from his past. About a mission he did about a hundred years ago, years before I recruited you Gin."

"I see, is it a bad past? Cause he look so…gloomy."

Aizen closed his eyes and shook his head, "He lost his eyesight on the mission."

Gin nodded. His fox smile was rubbed off his face for a while before returning it back when he heard the door open and Szayel came in.

"Aizen-sama," Szayel bowed down in front of the two ex-captains, "I have a report from Ulquiorra and Grimmjow."

"Go on," said Aizen while Gin leaned on the nearest wall he could find.

"They lost the transmitter," continued Szayel. He could feel Aizen's reiatsu increased for a moment before he added, "but I already activated a tracking device of the transmitter so they can locate it back in no time."

"They better be, we do not want to miss the game now, wouldn't we." Gin said. His smile now looked intimidating to Szayel. "If they screw up, you're in for it too."

Szayel nodded in fear at the tense reiatsu released by them. Aizen than told him to return to the Media Chamber to update him on the status so he immediately left the room.

"I do not understand why you chose those two to do the job for you. You know they do not get along." Gin then asked Aizen who was beginning to calm down a little.

"Those two are my best Espadas, despite their rank," Aizen explained "If they could get along, their strength could outmatch Starkk himself. Besides, Ulquiorra needs to lay off his head from work and have fun once in a while. This trip to the living world might even ease him up a little. Grimmjow could help him with that, since I gave him the tickets to the final match. What could be more entertaining than that?"

"But Ulquiorra hates soccer."

"Ahh, that's because he never played it or watch the game. He never know what it felt; the anxious and suspense as the ball goes through the field. As it get dribbled towards the penalty box. The excitement when your team scores a goal and the disappointment when the opponent does it. Maybe all Ulquiorra need is a first hand experience."

"I see," Gin rubbed his chin. Both continued their silence as they looked out of the hole and again watched the desert sand of Hueco Mundo as if something will show up and break the boredom.

"So, about my Arrancar Encyclopedia airtime….."

* * *

Living World

It was forty minutes past midnight back at Johannesburg and the weather was terrible. It was raining heavily all of a sudden since 10pm, and the roads and streets began to flood itself with water. Grimmjow was sheltering himself under a bridge somewhere in central Johannesburg. He stared at the soccer game's tickets in his hands and thanked god that it was still dry. Ulquiorra was standing next to him staring at his handphone.

"There's no use man," Grimmjow said, "with a heavy rain like this we can't detect any signal from the transmitter. We have to wait until the rain stops."

"Hmm," Ulquiorra spun the phone between his forefinger and his thumb before putting it in his pocket. He looked at the falling rain with one of his hand reaching out a little off the shelter to feel the droplets of water.

"Oh so you're putting me on silent treatment again huh?" said Grimmjow as he leaned on the wall and sat down. "I told you I was sorry I lost your wallet."

Ulquiorra ignored him. He ran his fingers down his wet hair locks. He spared Grimmjow a few sharp glances before returning them to the rainy view of the city,

"Its not the wallet you're worrying about isn't it?" Grimmjow said, putting up a grin in his face because he seemed to have caught Ulquiorra's attention. "And its not the transmitter either. You're worried because of the picture of that human girl in yo—"

The next thing Grimmjow knew was that Ulquiorra's foot was on his neck pinning him against the wall.

"How did you know about that picture?" Ulquiorra asked in a very soft rough voice.

"Finally I got you talking again," Grimmjow replied as he removed his partner's foot from his neck. "I found it in your wallet when I took some cash earlier."

"A word of this to any other soul I will give you another hole on your chest. Do you understand, thrash?"

"Relax," Grimmjow stood up at eye level to Ulquiorra "No one would believe me if I tell them. Everyone see you as a depressed guy who has no care to anyone else around you. Not to mention a workaholic too."

"I'm not a workaholic."

"Then when was the last time you did something that is not related to Aizen's mission at all?"

Ulquiorra was surprised he had a hard time answering the question, causing Grimmjow to put up a victorious grin on his face.

"Come on, even when everyone else was enjoying the World Cup, you just keep on isolating your self in your room."

"That was because I do not like soccer."

"You do not like anything in general!"

Ulquiorra ceased the conversation at Grimmjow's statement. That was not true. He does like something. He liked being an Espada. He liked it when Aizen praised him for his good job. He liked being alone in his room in his free time…..

Oh shit. Grimmjow was right all along.

He is a workaholic.

A very lonely workaholic.

"And if you plan to attract that human chick, I suggest you to brighten up a bit. Cause you are scaring her," added Grimmjow.

Ulquiorra gave him a sharp glare. Maybe he was right. Is he scaring her away? But they did talk about stuff when she was still held captive by him. They talked about hearts, and souls, and friendship. Well he admitted at that time he threaten to slice her head open with a point blank cero.

Damn….I am scaring her.

"I'm going for a walk." Ulquiorra said as he slowly walked into the rain.

"You're crazy. It's raining out there!" Grimmjow yelled. Ulquiorra ignored him. He liked the rain. It made him feel calm, happier in a sense. And he needed to clear his mind a little. All this time he thought of himself as a very 'cool' guy. And he thought people around him think so too. But according to Grimmjow everyone saw him a snobbish pet of Aizen who had some kind of stick up his ass. A scary, sadistic twat that frightened everyone around him. He had to show them he could have some fun too. He had to find a way to be seen as a more…friendly in a way. Maybe even a way to attract that human girl. He must do something.

* * *

The cold weather woke Chad up from his sleep. He looked at the unfamiliar environment around him before recalling back what happened last night. The weather had stopped raining and according to his watch, it's almost six in the morning. Far too early for the sun to come out in South Africa.

He was lying on a cardboard box on the floor of an abandoned half-burnt department store's storeroom. Next to him was Ishida leaning on the walls with Orihime on his lap, both still soundly sleeping. The cold temperature was making both of them shivering; especially Orihime whom they suspected was having a fever because of it. Chad had covered her and Ishida with a ragged curtain of the store room but it didn't help much. Being stranded in some old building in a foreign city was not part of their plan yesterday.

You see, after filing a report at the nearest police booth they decided to take cab and pay for the ride after getting money from Ichigo or Rukia or anyone else back at the inn. But the rain suddenly fell and no cab was seen anywhere. They had to find shelter and wait for the rain to stop before proceeding in finding a way back to Bafana Inn. However the rain never ceased so they were stuck in the closest shelter they could find; a small store room of an abandoned department store which seemed to be on fire recently. The store room was spared from any serious burn so it was practically safe to be a shelter, according to Ishida.

Didn't want to wake his friends up, Chad walked out of the store to enjoy the early morning air. Chad was always a morning person and a nature lover, far on contrary to his vicious physical looks. He loved animals. He loved flowers. Always being optimistic in every way, every situation.

The wet street of Johannesburg in the morning was not as crowded as it was yesterday night. In fact, one could say that it was practically empty. No one was walking up or down the pavement. There were hardly any cars on the road. Probably everyone was tired for the late night celebration and was still resting to get ready for the big game tonight. South Africa vs Japan.

Speaking of the game, they need to get back to the inn soon. The others should be worried about them now. They have to get to Soccer City at 7pm to avoid the traffic if they want to watch the match on time.

"AHHHHHHHHHHH"

Chad was snapped off his thought when he heard a scream from a distance. A woman's scream. And being Chad he had to check it out in case someone was in trouble. He rushed through the wet pavements and followed the trail of the scream he heard before. He arrived at an isolated alley two blocks away and saw a woman, probably in her late twenties was pinned against the wall by three men. She had dark brown hair and quite a fair skin, quickly indicating she was not a local. Plus, she had an Asian look on her. The three men were covering themselves with a ski mask and one was pointing a pistol to the woman. Few feet away from them stood another man with a ski mask carrying a small boy in one arm and spinning a pistol on the other. The small boy has the same dark brown hair that was combed neatly to the left. He was crying and trying so hard to escape by kicking his feet frantically in the air. From what Chad see, the men were going to do something horrible to the woman.

"Oka-san!" the boy shouted before the man that was holding him gagged his mouth by putting the end of the pistol in his mouth.

'They're Japanese..' Chad thought. He was hiding behind a large dumpster trying to find a best way to tackle the situation. They had guns, and hostages. Any wrong move would be futile.

"El Directo" Chad chanted as his right arm mutated into a large purple muscular and armoured arm before firing a beam of blast to the dumpster, causing it to explode. The thrash now filled the air, distracting the four men. A perfect chance for Chad to rush in and grab the woman and the little boy. He ran to the boy and twisted one of the man's arm, causing him to drop his pistol.

"Go hide!" Chad yelled. He then did a drop punch on the same man, causing him to fall on the ground. The other three men noticed and began to open fire on Chad. Chad tried hard to dodge the bullet before running towards the men and charged them with his large body altogether into the wall, causing a large wreck on the bricks. After all the men were on the ground moaning, Chad approached the trembling woman, whom the little boy was hugging with.

"You're safe now. I promise you," Chad kneeled down to reach eye level with the two.

"You speak Japanese.." the woman said weakly, "Arigato,"

"I am Japanese, although I have Mexican blood in me," Chad explained. "My name is Yasutora Sado. My friends call me Chad."

"Thank you again for saving us Chad," the woman replied in gesture. "My name is Mizuhara Kawashima." She pointed to the little boy who was in her arm. " This is my six year old son, Fukio."

"Nice to meet you," Chad said as he shook her hand. "Did you know those men?"

"No. I do not know why. Me and Fukio had just arrived from the airport. We took a cab and stopped by a café nearby for breakfast .While waiting for another cab, the four men dragged us into this alley and…and.." Mizuhara's voice trailed into a soft sob and Chad knew it was not wise to let her finish her statement.

"Are you here to watch the game later?" Chad asked

"Yes. My husband is Eiji Kawashima, the goalkeeper of the Japanese team. We came here to surprise him before the game."

Chad nodded in acknowledgement. He was with the wife and son of the Japanese National Team's goalie. If he were a large football fan, he would flipped up and down with joy. But he was not. He was….Chad.

"Lets get you two back to your hotel," Chad stood up and offered his hand to pull the woman up. Before the woman could reach his hand, her eyes widened in fear while the boy began to cry.

"Look out!"

**BANG!**

A sting was felt on Chad's back. He touched the painful part with his hands and discovered it was covered with blood. He turned around and saw one of the unconscious men earlier aimed a pistol on him. A freshly fired pistol. He was shot on the back. Chad began to feel dizzy as the pain exacerbated and he began to loose his footing. Mizuhara and Fukio screamed in terror of what they were witnessing.

"Damn.." said Chad.

**BANG!**

* * *

**I admit World Cup has ended. But I hate unfinished stories.**

**SO I HOPE MY FELLOW READERS WOULD STILL READ THIS  
EVEN THOUGH THE WC FEVER IS OVER!**

**This had been also a very hard chapter but I pulled through.**

**I plan to end the story in few more chapters so wait and see!**

**Soi Fon maybe out of character here so bear with me.**

**Oh and the timeline in Heuco Mundo, Soul Society and Living world will be different. (Day in Soul Society, Night in Living World etc.) **

**SO what would happen to Chad huh?**

**Would you agree if I kill him in South Africa? OR should I keep him alive?**

**Raise up your hands those who wants to see him dead.**

**Give me a middle finger if you wanna see him alive.**

**HAHAHA**

**Anyway review!**

**The faith of Chad**

**Is in your hands.**

**=B

* * *

**

***Kon flies across screen***

**SHINIGAMI!**

**World Cup Fever!**

Kenpachi explored the village for a place to take a leak. All that running in his Gigai caused him to sweat. And all that sweat required him to drink plenty of water. And what goes in must come out.

He found a spot and began unzipping his pants. He eased up his urinal muscle to let the liquid flow…..

….only to have it stuck at the tip of his 'stick'.

"What the?" Kenpachi roared mentally. He looked at the gigai's 'stick' and found it to be sealed with a metallic top and screwed to it. What kind of Gigai would have its 'stick' sealed? Damn that Uruhara and his weird upgrades!

"Fuck this shit! I am going to burst you open!"

!

Back at the hut

"Yachiru, where you going?" Rachel asked the pink-haired lieutenant who walked out of the hut.

"I forgot to give Ken-Chan this." Yachiru showed her a can-opener-like device.

"What's that for?" asked Rachel.

"The Gigai we are using seals reiatsu very effectively. Candy-chan back at Japan said that reiatsu can easily leaked out through the gigai's private parts. So he put a special seal on them. This is the only tool that can remove the seal. Like a can opener," explained Yachiru.

"Oh right, said he was going to pee...What would happen if he use force to break the seal?"

"A defensive mechanism will then remove the whole structure from the Gigai to prevent leakage of reiatsu from a broken seal."

"What do you mean?"

"His 'stick' will go ka-boom!"

Back at Kenpachi

"Fuck…"


End file.
